THE  JOURNAL  OF 

SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

VON  FORSTNER 


w 

g 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

VON  FORSTNER 

TRANSLATED   BY 

MRS.  RUSSELL  CODMAN 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 
JOHN  HAYS  HAMMOND,  JR. 


TOUT  BltN  Jl  ~1)J  >  OU  WEN 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,   1917,  BY  JOHN  HAYS  HAMMOND,  JR.   AND   ANNA   CRAFTS 
CODMAN 

ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 

Published  November  iqij 


CONTENTS 

FOREWORD  BY  THE  TRANSLATOR       .      .    vii 

INTRODUCTION  BY  JOHN  HAYS  HAMMOND, 
JR.:  THE  CHALLENGE  TO  NAVAL 
SUPREMACY xi 

I.  ORDERED  TO  COMMAND  A  SUBMARINE      1 

II.  BREATHING  AND  LIVING  CONDITIONS 

UNDER  WATER 6 

III.  SUBMERSION  AND  TORPEDO  FIRE  .     17 

IV.  MOBILIZATION  AND  THE  BEGINNING 

OF  THE  COMMERCIAL  WAR  .       .     39 

V.  OUR  OWN  PART  IN  THE  COMMERCIAL 
WAR  AND  OUR  FIRST  CAPTURED 
STEAMER 53 

VI.  THE     CAPTURE     OF    TWO     PRIZE 

STEAMERS 74 

VII.  OFF  THE  COAST  OF  ENGLAND.       .     97 

VIII.  THE    METHOD    OF    SINKING    AND 

RAISING  SHIPS  .  .  122 


393582 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PASSENGERS  AND  GREW  LEAVING  A  SINK- 
ING LINER  TORPEDOED  BY  A  GERMAN 
SUBMARINE  IN  THE  MEDITERRANEAN 

Frontispiece 

INTERIOR  OF  A  SUBMARINE   ....  xliv 
A  TORPEDOED  SCHOONER       ....    36 

GERMAN  SUBMARINES  U 13,  U  5,  U 11,  U  3, 
AND  U  16  IN  KIEL  HARBOR  ...  40 

VON  FORSTNER'S  SUBMARINE   (U  28)  IN 

ACTION  IN  THE  NORTH  SEA:  A  SERIES  OF 

PHOTOGRAPHS  TAKEN  FROM  THE  DECK 

OF  ONE  OF  HER  VICTIMS    ....    78 

From  the  London  Graphic,  March  27,  igi5 

LIFEBOAT  LEAVING  THE  SINKING  P.  AND  0. 
LINER  ARABIA 98 

BRITISH  HOSPITAL  SHIP  GLOUCESTER  CAS- 
TLE, SHOWING  RED  CROSS  ON  Bow,  SUNK 
IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHANNEL  BY  A  GERMAN 
SUBMARINE  ....  .126 


FOREWORD 

THE  following  pages  form  an 
abridged  translation  of  a  book 
published  in  1916  by  Freiherrn  von 
Forstner,  commander  of  the  first  Ger- 
man U-boat.  It  was  written  with  the 
somewhat  careless  haste  of  a  man  who 
took  advantage  of  disconnected  mo- 
ments of  leisure,  and  these  moments 
were  evidently  subject  to  abrupt  and 
prolonged  interruptions.  Many  repeti- 
tions and  trivial  incidents  have  been 
omitted  in  this  translation;  but,  in 
order  to  express  the  personality  of  the 
Author,  the  rendering  has  been  as 
literal  as  possible,  and  it  shows  the 
strange  mixture  of  sentimentality  and 
ferocity  peculiar  to  the  psychology  of 
the  Germans. 

vii 


FOREWORD 

Part  of  the  book  gives  a  technical 
description, — not  so  much  of  the  con- 
struction of  a  submarine  as  of  the  na- 
ture of  its  activities, — which  presents 
us  an  unusual  opportunity  to  glean  a 
few  valuable  facts  from  this  personal 
and  intimate  account  of  a  German 
U-boat.  We  are  inclined  to  a  certain 
grim  humor  in  borrowing  the  candid 
information  given  to  us  Americans  so 
unconsciously  by  Freiherrn  von  Forst- 
ner,  for  he  could  hardly  suppose  it 
would  fall  into  the  hands  of  those  who 
would  join  the  fighting  ranks  of  the 
hated  enemy,  as,  in  his  bitter  animosity, 
he  invariably  calls  the  English  when- 
ever he  refers  to  them. 

Several  chapters  in  this  book  are 

simple  narratives  of  the  commander's 

own   adventures   during   the   present 

naval  warfare  waged  against  commerce. 

viii 


FOREWORD 

His  attempts  at  a  lighter  vein  often 
provoke  a  smile  at  the  quality  of  his 
wit,  but  he  is  not  lacking  in  fine  and 
manly  virtues.  He  is  a  loyal  comrade; 
a  good  officer  concerned  for  the  welfare 
of  his  crew.  He  is  even  kindly  to  his 
captives  when  he  finds  they  are  docile 
victims.  He  is  also  willing  to  credit 
his  adversary  with  pluck  and  courage. 
He  is  never  sparing  of  his  own  person, 
and  shows  admirable  endurance  under 
pressure  of  intense  work  and  great  re- 
sponsibility. He  is  full  of  enthusiastic 
love  for  his  profession,  and  in  describ- 
ing a  storm  at  sea  his  rather  monoto- 
nous style  of  writing  suddenly  rises  to 
eloquence.  But  in  his  exalted  devo- 
tion to  the  Almighty  War  Lord,  and 
to  the  Fatherland,  he  openly  reveals 
his  fanatical  joy  in  the  nefarious  work 
he  has  to  perform. 
ix 


FOREWORD 

It  is  difficult  to  realize  that  this 
ardent  worship  of  detail,  and  this 
marvelous  efficiency  in  the  conservation 
of  every  resource,  are  applied  to  a 
weapon  of  destruction  which  directs 
its  indiscriminate  attacks  against 
women  and  children,  hospital  trans- 
ports, and  relief  ships.  Nothing  at  the 
present  day  has  aroused  such  fear  as 
this  invisible  enemy,  nor  has  anything 
outraged  the  civilized  world  like  the 
tragedies  caused  by  the  German  sub- 
marines. 

This  small  volume  may  offer  new 
suggestions  to  those  familiar  with  the 
science  of  submarine  construction,  and 
it  may  also  shed  a  little  light,  even  for 
lay  readers,  on  a  subject  which  for  the 
last  three  years  has  taken  a  preeminent 
place  in  the  history  of  the  War. 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  CHALLENGE  TO  NAVAL  SUPREMACY 
I 

TN  a  letter  to  William  Pitt,  of  Jan- 
•*•  uary  6,  1806,  relating  to  his  inven- 
tion of  a  submersible  boat,  Robert 
Fulton  wrote  prophetically,  "Now,  in 
this  business,  I  will  not  disguise  that  I 
have  full  confidence  in  the  power  which 
I  possess,  which  is  no  less  than  to  be  the 
means,  should  I  think  proper,  of  giving 
to  the  world  a  system  which  must  of 
necessity  sweep  all  military  marines 
from  the  ocean,  by  giving  the  weaker 
maritime  powers  advantages  over  the 
stronger,  which  the  stronger  cannot 
prevent." 

xi 


INTRODUCTION 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that,  about 
a  hundred  years  later,  Vice-Admiral 
Fournier  of  the  French  Navy  stated 
before  a  Parliamentary  committee  of 
investigation  that,  if  France  had  pos- 
sessed a  sufficient  number  of  submers- 
ibles,  and  had  disposed  them  strategi- 
cally about  her  coasts  and  the  coasts 
of  her  possessions,  these  vessels  could 
have  controlled  the  trade  routes  of  the 
world.  He  said  also  that  the  fighting 
value  of  a  sufficient  number  of  submers- 
ibles  would  reestablish  the  balance  of 
power  between  England  and  France. 

The  history  of  naval  warfare  during 
the  last  few  months  has  confirmed 
the  opinions  of  these  two  authorities, 
although  in  a  manner  which  they  in  no 
way  anticipated. 

Direct  comparison  is  the  usual 
method  by  which  the  human  mind  es- 
xii 


INTRODUCTION 

timates  values.  We  would  measure  the 
strength  of  two  men  by  pitting  them 
against  each  other  in  physical  en- 
counter; in  the  same  way,  we  are  prone 
to  measure  the  combative  effect  of 
weapons  by  pitting  them  in  conflict 
against  other  weapons.  But  modern 
warfare  is  of  so  complex  a  nature  that 
direct  comparisons  fail,  and  only  a  care- 
ful analysis  of  military  experience  deter- 
mines the  potentiality  of  a  weapon  and 
its  influence  on  warfare.  Robert  Fulton 
and  Admiral  Fournier  both  indicated 
that  they  believed  in  the  submersible's 
supremacy  in  actual  encounter  with 
capital  ships.  The  war,  so  far,  has 
shown  that,  in  action  between  fleets, 
the  submersible  has  played  a  negative 
part.  In  the  Jutland  Bank  battle, 
the  submersible,  handicapped  in  speed 
and  eyesight,  took  as  active  a  part,  as 

xiii 


INTRODUCTION 

a  Jack  Tar  humorously  put  it,  "as  a 
turtle  might  in  a  cat  fight."  Not  even 
under  the  extraordinary  conditions  of 
the  bombardment  in  the  Dardanelles, 
when  the  circumstances  were  such  as 
lent  themselves  strikingly  to  submarine 
attack,  did  these  vessels  score  against 
the  fleet  in  action.1 

It  is  easy  to  understand  why  the 
submersible  did  not  take  a  vital  part 
in  any  of  the  major  naval  actions.  In 
the  naval  battle  of  to-day  we  have  a 
number  of  very  high-speed  armored 
craft  fighting  against  one  another  over 
ranges  extending  up  to  17,000  yards. 
There  is  a  constant  evolution  in  the 
position  of  the  ships  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  follow  from  the  low  point 

1  The  "  Majestic  "  was  torpedoed  at  the  Darda- 
nelles, while  at  anchor.  The  "Triumph"  was  tor- 
pedoed while  moving  slowly;  both  warships  had 
out  their  torpedo  nets. 

xiv 


INTRODUCTION 

of  vantage  of  a  periscope,  for  the 
different  formations  of  ships  mean 
nothing  to  the  submersible  commander. 
He  is  so  placed  that  his  range  of  vision 
is  extremely  limited,  and,  on  account 
of  the  low  speed  of  his  boat  while 
submerged,  he  can  operate  over  only 
a  very  limited  area  of  water  while  the 
other  vessels  are  moving  many  miles. 
Then,  too,  he  is  extremely  vulnerable 
to  the  effect  of  enemy  shells  and  to  the 
ramming  of  enemy  ships.  Under  these 
conditions  the  submersible  commander 
is  more  or  less  forced  to  a  policy  of 
lying  ambushed  to  surprise  his  enemy. 
It  is  said  that  the  "Lusitania"  was 
decoyed  into  a  nest  of  submersibles. 
There  was  but  little  chance  of  torpedo- 
ing her  in  any  other  way.  There  is 
also  the  statement  that  Admiral  Beatty 
passed  with  his  battle-cruisers  through 

XV 


INTRODUCTION 

a  flotilla  of  enemy  submersibles  with- 
out being  touched. 

Submersibles  cannot  attack  their 
target  in  definite  formations  as  do 
surface  vessels,  and  therefore  they 
cannot  operate  in  numbers  with  the 
same  effectiveness  as  do  the  latter. 
They  must  maneuver  more  or  less 
singly,  and  at  random.  Being  limited 
to  the  torpedo,  which,  when  they  are 
submerged,  is  their  sole  weapon  of  at- 
tack, they  have  an  uncertain  means  of 
striking  their  armed  enemy.  The  ec- 
centricities of  the  automobile  torpedo 
are  well  known;  but,  even  eliminating 
the  fact  that  this  missile  is  unreliable, 
the  important  question  of  accuracy 
in  the  estimate  of  range  and  speed 
which  the  submersible  commander  has 
to  make  before  firing  the  torpedo 
must  be  considered.  There  is  usually 
xvi 


INTRODUCTION 

a  large  percentage  of  error  in  his 
calculations  unless  the  submersible  is 
extremely  close  to  its  target.  Realizing 
these  limitations,  the  German  sub- 
mersibles  are  equipped  with  small 
torpedoes,  which  are  generally  fired  at 
ranges  not  exceeding  eight  hundred 
to  two  thousand  yards.  The  necessity 
of  approaching  the  target  so  closely 
is,  of  course,  a  tremendous  handicap 
in  the  general  operation  of  these  boats. 
In  view  of  these  facts,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  submersible  should  not 
have  been  able  to  sweep  the  capital 
ship  from  the  seas,  as  was  predicted 
by  certain  experts  before  the  war. 

II 

Admiral  Sir  Cyprian  Bridge  regards 
the  functions  of  defense  by  a  navy  as 
xvii 


INTRODUCTION 

divisible  into  three  main  classifications. 
He  says,  "The  above-mentioned  three 
divisions  are  called  in  common  speech, 
coast  defense,  colonial  defense,  and 
defense  of  commerce."  From  this 
classification  we  are  given  a  hint  as  to 
what  a  sailor  means  by  "naval  su- 
premacy," "freedom  of  the  seas," 
and  other  terms  so  misused  that  to-day 
they  mean  nothing.  "Coast  defense" 
means  defense  against  invasion; 
"colonial  defense"  means  the  safe- 
guarding of  distant  possessions  against 
enemy  forces;  the  "defense  of  com- 
merce" means  such  supremacy  on  the 
seas  as  will  insure  absolute  safety  of 
the  mercantile  marine  from  enemy 
commerce-destroyers. 

To-day  every  great  nation  is  waging 
a  trade  war.    The  industrial  competi- 
tion of  peace  is  as  keen  as  the  com- 
xviii 


INTRODUCTION 

petition  of  war.  All  the  great  Powers 
realized  years  ago  that,  to  gain  and 
keep  their  "place  in  the  sun,"  it  was 
necessary  for  them  to  construct  navies 
that  would  insure  to  them  a  certain 
control  of  the  seas  for  the  protection 
of  their  commerce.  In  this  way  began 
the  abnormal  naval  construction  in 
which  the  Powers  have  vied  with  one 
another  for  supremacy. 

A  simple  way  of  looking  at  the 
question,  what  constitutes  the  power 
of  a  fleet,  is  to  consider  the  warship  as 
merely  a  floating  gun-platform.  Even 
though  this  floating  platform  is  the 
most  complex  piece  of  mechanism  that 
was  ever  contrived  by  man,  neverthe- 
less its  general  function  is  simple.  The 
war  has  given  us  enough  experience  to 
convince  us  that  the  backbone  of  a 
navy  is,  after  all,  the  heavily  armored 
xix 


INTRODUCTION 

ship  of  moderately  high  speed,  carrying 
a  very  heavy  armament.  This  floating 
gun-platform  is  the  structure  best 
fitted  to  carry  large  guns  into  battle, 
and  to  withstand  the  terrific  punish- 
ment of  the  enemy's  fire. 

The  battleship  is  to-day,  notwith- 
standing the  development  of  other 
types,  queen  of  the  seas.  It  is  there- 
fore not  difficult  to  estimate  the  rela- 
tive power  of  the  fleets  of  different 
nations.  In  fact,  a  purely  engineering 
estimate  of  this  kind  can  be  made, 
and  the  respective  ranks  of  the  world's 
naval  powers  ascertained.  Germany 
has  shown  all  through  the  war  that 
she  thoroughly  appreciated  the  British 
naval  supremacy.  Her  fleet  has  ven- 
tured little  more  than  sporadic  opera- 
tions from  the  well-fortified  bases 
behind  Heligoland.  It  was  probably 

XX 


INTRODUCTION 

the  pressure  of  public  opinion,  and 
not  the  expectation  that  she  would 
achieve  anything  of  military  advan- 
tage, that  forced  her  to  send  her  high- 
sea  fleet  into  conflict  with  the  British 
squadrons  off  Jutland. 

If  one  should  examine  the  course  of 
this  battle,  which  has  been  represented 
by  lines  graphically  showing  the  paths 
of  the  British  and  German  fleets,  one 

ERRATUM 

In  Introduction,  page  xxi,  line  6  from  the 
bottom,  for  "  1915  "  read  "  1916." 

literally  herded  on  May  31,  1915,  from 
5:36  in  the  afternoon  until  9  o'clock 
that  night.  Admiral  von  Scheer,  how- 
ever, fought  the  only  action  which  it 
was  possible  for  him  to  fight.  It  was 
a  losing  action,  and  one  which  he  knew, 

xxi 


INTRODUCTION 

ship  of  moderately  high  speed,  carrying 
a  very  heavy  armament.  This  floating 
gun-platform  is  the  structure  best 
fitted  to  carry  large  guns  into  battle, 
and  to  withstand  the  terrific  punish- 
ment of  the  enemy's  fire. 

The  battleship  is  to-day,  notwith- 
standing the  development  of  other 
types,  queen  of  the  seas.  It  is  there- 
to  estimate  the  rela- 


llClVCU.          J^YYV^K,          „ 

has  shown  all  through  the  war  that 
she  thoroughly  appreciated  the  British 
naval  supremacy.  Her  fleet  has  ven- 
tured little  more  than  sporadic  opera- 
tions from  the  well-fortified  bases 
behind  Heligoland.  It  was  probably 

XX 


INTRODUCTION 

the  pressure  of  public  opinion,  and 
not  the  expectation  that  she  would 
achieve  anything  of  military  advan- 
tage, that  forced  her  to  send  her  high- 
sea  fleet  into  conflict  with  the  British 
squadrons  off  Jutland. 

If  one  should  examine  the  course  of 
this  battle,  which  has  been  represented 
by  lines  graphically  showing  the  paths 
of  the  British  and  German  fleets,  one 
could  easily  see  how  the  British  im- 
posed their  will  upon  the  Germans  in 
every  turn  that  these  lines  make.  It 
reminds  one  very  much  of  the  herding 
of  sheep,  for  the  German  fleet  was 
literally  herded  on  May  31,  i9lS,  from 
5:36  in  the  afternoon  until  9  o'clock 
that  night.  Admiral  von  Scheer,  how- 
ever, fought  the  only  action  which  it 
was  possible  for  him  to  fight.  It  was 
a  losing  action,  and  one  which  he  knew, 

xxi 


INTRODUCTION 

from  a  purely  mathematical  considera- 
tion, could  not  be  successful. 

Through  the  very  defmiteness  of  this 
understanding  of  what  constitutes 
naval  strength,  Great  Britain's  navy 
until  recently  has  remained  a  great 
potential  force,  becoming  dynamic  for 
only  a  few  hours  at  Jutland,  after 
which  it  returned  to  that  mysterious 
northern  base  whence '  it  seems  to 
dominate  the  seas.  Because  of  the 
potentiality  of  these  hidden  warships, 
thousands  of  vessels  have  traversed 
the  ocean,  freighted  with  countless 
tons  of  cargoes  and  millions  of  men 
for  the  Allies.  Even  at  that  psycho- 
logical moment  when  the  first  hundred 
thousand  were  being  transported  to 
France,  Germany  refrained  from  a 
naval  attack  which  might  have  turned 
the  whole  land  campaign  in  her  favor. 

xxii 


INTRODUCTION 

To-day,  however,  the  world  is 
awakening  to  a  new  idea  of  sea-power, 
to  a  new  conception  that  will  have  a 
far-reaching  influence  on  the  future 
development  of  naval  machinery. 

Sir  Cyprian  Bridge  has  stated  that 
one  of  the  functions  of  a  fleet  is  the 
defense  of  commerce.  There  is  no 
more  important  function  for  a  fleet 
than  this.  A  nation  may  be  sub- 
jugated by  direct  invasion,  or  it  may 
be  isolated  from  the  world  by  blockade. 
If  the  blockade  be  sufficiently  long, 
and  effectively  maintained,  it  will  ruin 
the  nation  as  effectually  as  direct  in- 
vasion. 

Thus,  in  the  maintenance  of  a  nation's 
merchant  marine  on  the  high  seas, 
its  navy  exercises  one  of  its  most  vital 
functions.  There  can,  therefore,  be 
no  naval  supremacy  for  a  nation  unless 

xxiii 


INTRODUCTION 

its  commerce  is  assured  of  immunity 
from  considerable  losses  through  the 
attack  of  its  enemy.  It  is  idle  for 
us  to  speak  of  our  naval  supremacy 
over  Germany,  when  our  navies  are 
failing  in  one  of  their  most  important 
functions,  and  when  our  commerce  is 
suffering  such  serious  losses.  The 
persons  best  qualified  to  judge  are 
those  who  are  most  anxious  regard- 
ing the  present  losses  in  mercantile 
tonnage. 

While  it  has  been  shown  that  the 
submersible  of  to-day,  as  a  fighting 
machine,  is  considerably  limited,  and 
in  no  sense  endangers  the  existence  of 
the  capital  ship,  nevertheless  in  the 
new  huge  submersible  it  seems  that 
the  ideal  commerce-destroyer  has  been 
found.  This  vessel  possesses  the  neces- 
sary cruising  radius  to  operate  over 
xxiv 


INTRODUCTION 

sufficient  distances  to  control  impor- 
tant routes;  it  makes  a  surface  speed 
great  enough  to  run  down  cargo  steam- 
ers, and  has  a  superstructure  to  mount 
guns  of  considerable  power  (up  to  six- 
inch)  .  It  embodies  almost  all  the  quali- 
fications of  the  light  surface  cruiser, 
with  the  additional  tremendous  ad- 
vantage of  being  able  to  hide  by 
submergence.  To  be  completely  suc- 
cessful, it  must  operate  in  flotillas 
of  hundreds  in  waters  that  are  opaque 
to  aerial  observation.  Germany  has 
but  a  limited  number  of  these  sub- 
mersibles,  otherwise  she  would  be  able 
to  crush  the  Allied  commerce. 

The  ideal  submersible  commerce- 
raider  should  be  a  vessel  of  such  dis- 
placement that  she  could  carry  a 
sufficient  number  of  large  guns  in  her 
superstructure  to  enable  her  to  fight  off 

XXV 


INTRODUCTION 

the  attack  of  surface  destroyers  and 
the  smaller  patrol  craft.1  She  should 
be  capable  of  cruising  over  a  large 
radius  at  high  speed,  both  on  the  sur- 
face and  submerged.  The  supersub- 
mersible  flotillas  should  comprise  fifty 
or  sixty  of  these  units.  The  attack  on 
the  trade  routes  should  be  made  by  a 
number  of  flotillas  operating  at  differ- 
ent points  at  unexpected  times.  To- 
day Germany  has  concentrated  her 
submarine  war  particularly  in  the  con- 
stricted waters  about  England.  It  is 
here  that  the  shipping  is  most  con- 
gested, and  therefore  the  harvest  is 
richest,  but  it  is  also  easier  to  protect 
the  trade  routes  over  these  limited 
areas  of  water  by  patrols,  nets,  etc., 
than  it  would  be  to  protect  the  entire 

1  The  Germans  have  in  operation  submersibles  of 
2000  tons  displacement. 

xxvi 


INTRODUCTION 

trans-oceanic  length  of  the  steamship 
lanes.  If  the  submersible  were  capable 
of  dealing  directly  with  the  destroyer 
in  gun-fighting,  a  tremendous  revolu- 
tion would  take  place  in  the  tactics 
of  "submarine  swatting."  Then  it 
would  be  difficult  to  see  how  the  sub- 
mersible could  be  dealt  with. 

Improvement  in  motive  machinery 
is  the  vital  necessity  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  submersible.  The  next 
few  years  may  see  unexpected  strides 
taken  in  this  direction.  A  great  deal 
will  also  be  accomplished  in  perfecting 
methods  of  receiving  sounds  under 
water,  particularly  in  relation  to  ascer- 
taining the  direction  of  these  sounds. 
When  this  is  done,  it  will  be  possible 
for  the  submersible  commander  to  tell 
a  great  deal  about  the  positions  of  the 
vessels  above  him,  and  thus  his  arti- 
xxvii 


INTRODUCTION 

ficial  ears  will  compensate  to  a  great 
extent  for  his  blindness.  By  the 
addition  of  a  greater  number  of  torpedo- 
tubes,  and  the  improvement  of  their 
centralized  control  in  the  hand  of  the 
commander  at  the  periscope,  along 
lines  which  we  are  now  developing,  it 
will  be  possible  for  the  submersible  to 
achieve  a  greater  effectiveness  in  its 
torpedo  fire.  Probably  torpedoes  will 
then  be  used  only  against  the  more 
important  enemy  units,  such  as  battle- 
ships, cruisers,  and  the  like.  To  be 
certain  of  striking  these  valuable  tar- 
gets would  be  worth  expending  a 
number  of  torpedoes  in  salvo  fire. 

Whether  the  German  U-boat  cam- 
paign succeeds  or  not  will  be  largely 
a  question  of  the  number  of  sub- 
mersibles  that  the  Central  Powers  can 
put  into  service,  and  to  what  extent 
xxviii 


INTRODUCTION 

the  submersible  will  be  developed  dur- 
ing the  present  war. 


nr 

German  submarines  have  sunk  over 
7,250,000  tons  of  the  Allied  shipping. 
In  December,  1916,  it  was  stated  in 
the  British  Parliament  that  the  mer- 
chant marine  of  Great  Britain  had  at 
that  time  over  20,000,000  tons.  Within 
the  first  three  months  of  the  unre- 
stricted submarine  warfare,  1,100,000 
tons  of  British  shipping  went  to  the 
bottom.  At  this  rate,  England  would 
lose  25  per  cent  of  her  merchant  marine 
per  annum.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
the  attention  of  the  entire  world  is  con- 
centrated upon  the  vital  problem  of 
the  submarine  menace.  On  land,  the 
Central  Powers  are  still  holding  their 
xxix 


INTRODUCTION 

ground,  but  there  is  a  continuous 
increase  of  the  forces  of  the  Allies 
which  should  lead  finally  to  such  a 
preponderance  of  power  as  will  over- 
whelm the  forces  opposed  to  them. 
The  Allied  armies,  however,  depend 
for  their  sustenance  and  supplies  upon 
the  freedom  of  the  seas.  The  trade 
routes  of  the  world  constitute  the 
arteries  which  feed  the  muscles  of  these 
armies.  Germany  is  endeavoring  to 
cut  these  arteries  by  the  submarine. 
Should  she  even  appreciably  limit  the 
supplies  that  cross  the  ocean  to  the 
Allies,  she  will  bring  about  a  condition 
that  will  make  it  impossible  to  aug- 
ment their  armies.  In  this  way  there 
will  inevitably  be  a  deadlock,  which, 
from  the  German  standpoint,  would 
be  a  highly  desirable  consummation. 
Obviously,  the  first  method  of  hand- 

XXX 


INTRODUCTION 

ling  the  submarine  problem  would  be  to 
bottle  the  German  undersea  craft  in 
their  bases.  There  has  been  a  number 
of  proposals  as  to  how  best  to  accom- 
plish this.  It  has  been  stated  that  the 
English  Navy  has  planted  mines  in 
channels  leading  from  Zeebrugge  and 
other  submarine  bases;  but  it  is  neces- 
sary only  to  recall  the  exploits  of  the 
E-ll  and  the  E-14  of  the  British  Navy 
at  the  Dardanelles,  to  see  that  it  would 
not  be  impossible  for  the  Germans  to 
pass  in  their  U-boats  through  these 
mine-fields  into  the  open  sea.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  the  E-ll  and  the 
E-14  passed  through  five  or  more  mine- 
fields, thence  through  the  Dardanelles 
into  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  and  even  into 
the  Bosphorus  under  seemingly  im- 
possible conditions.  Yet,  in  spite  of 
the  tremendous  risks  that  they  ran, 
xxxi 


INTRODUCTION 

these  boats  continued  their  operations 
for  some  time,  passing  up  as  far  as 
Constantinople,  actually  shelling  the 
city,  sinking  transports,  and  accom- 
plishing other  feats  which  have  been 
graphically  described  in  the  stories 
of  Rudyard  Kipling.  And  again,  if 
the  mine-fields  were  placed  in  close 
proximity  to  their  bases,  it  would  be 
comparatively  easy  for  German  sub- 
mersibles  of  the  Lake  type,  possessing 
appliances  to  enable  divers  to  pass 
outboard  when  the  vessel  is  submerged, 
to  go  out  and  cut  away  the  mines  and 
thus  render  them  ineffective. 

Nets  are  also  used  to  hinder  the  out- 
ward passage  of  the  submarine.  These 
nets  can  likewise  be  attacked  and 
easily  cut  by  devices  with  which  modern 
U-boats  are  equipped.  The  problem  of 
placing  these  obstacles  is  a  difficult 

xxxii 


INTRODUCTION 

one,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  ships 
so  engaged  are  harassed  by  German  de- 
stroyers and  other  enemy  craft.  Out- 
side of  Zeebrugge,  shallow  water 
extends  to  a  distance  of  about  five 
miles  from  the  coast,  and  it  has  been 
suggested  that  a  large  number  of 
aircraft,  carrying  bombs  and  torpedoes, 
should  be  used  to  patrol  systematically 
the  channel  leading  from  that  port  to 
deep  water,  with  the  intent  of  attacking 
the  submersibles  as  they  emerge  from 
this  base.  It  is  ridiculous  to  suppose 
that  the  Germans  would  not  be  able 
to  concentrate  an  equally  large  number 
of  aircraft,  to  be  supported  also  by 
anti-aircraft  guns  on  the  decks  of 
destroyers  and  by  the  coast  defenses. 
We  have  not  yet  won  the  supremacy  of 
the  air,  and  it  must  inevitably  be  mis- 
leading to  base  any  proposition  on  the 

xxxiii 


INTRODUCTION 

assumption  that  we  are  masters  of 
that  element. 

The  problem  of  bottling  up  the 
submersibles  is  enormously  difficult, 
because  it  necessitates  operations  in 
the  enemy's  territory,  where  he  would 
possess  the  superiority  of  power.  I 
believe  that  the  question  of  operations 
against  the  submarine  bases  is  not  a 
naval  but  a  military  one,  and  one 
which  would  be  best  solved  by  the 
advance  of  the  Western  left  flank  of 
the  Allied  armies. 

The  second  method  is  to  attack  the 
submarines  with  every  appliance  that 
science  can  produce.  In  order  to  attack 
the  submarine  directly  with  any 
weapon,  it  is  necessary  first  to  locate 
it.  This  is  a  problem  presenting  the 
greatest  difficulty,  for  it  is  by  their 
elusiveness  that  the  submarines  have 

xxxiv 


INTRODUCTION 

gained  such  importance  in  their  war 
on  trade.  They  attack  the  more  or 
less  helpless  merchant  ships,  and  vanish 
before  the  armed  patrols  appear  on  the 
scene. 

Almost  every  suitable  appliance 
known  to  physics  has  been  proposed 
for  the  solution  of  the  problem  of 
submarine  location  and  detection.  As 
the  submarine  is  a  huge  vessel  built 
of  metal,  it  might  be  supposed  that 
such  a  contrivance  as  the  Hughes 
induction  balance  might  be  employed 
to  locate  it.  The  Hughes  balance  is  a 
device  which  is  extremely  sensitive  to 
the  presence  of  minute  metallic  masses 
in  relatively  close  proximity  to  certain 
parts  of  the  apparatus.  Unfortunately, 
on  account  of  the  presence  of  the  saline 
sea-water,  the  submersible  is  practically 
shielded  by  a  conducting  medium  in 

XXXV 


INTRODUCTION 

which  are  set  up  eddy  currents.  Al- 
though the  sea-water  may  lack  *.  some- 
what in  conductivity,  it  compensates 
for  this  by  its  volume.  For  this  rea- 
son, the  induction  balance  has  proved 
a  failure. 

But  another  method  of  detecting  the 
position  of  a  metallic  mass  is  by  the 
use  of  the  magnetometer.  This  device 
operates  on  the  principle  of  magnetic 
attraction,  and  in  laboratories  on  stable 
foundations  it  is  extremely  sensitive. 
But  the  instability  of  the  ship  on 
which  it  would  be  necessary  to  carry 
this  instrument  would  render  it  im- 
possible to  obtain  a  sufficient  degree 
of  sensitiveness  in  the  apparatus  to 
give  it  any  value.  The  fact  that  the 
submersible  is  propelled  under  water 
by  powerful  electric  motors  begets  the 
idea  that  the  electrical  disturbances 
xxxvi 


INTRODUCTION 

therein  might  be  detected  by  highly 
sensitive  detectors  of  feeble  electrical 
oscillations.  The  sea-water,  in  this 
case,  will  be  found  to  absorb  to  a 
tremendous  extent  the  effects  of  the 
electrical  disturbance.  Moreover,  the 
metallic  hull  of  the  submersible  forms  in 
itself  an  almost  ideal  shield  to  screen 
the  outgoing  effect  of  these  motors. 

Considerable  and  important  develop- 
ment has  been  made  in  the  creation  of 
sensitive  sound-receiving  devices,  to 
hear  the  propeller  vibrations  and  the 
mechanical  vibrations  that  are  present 
in  a  submersible,  both  of  which  are 
transmitted  through  the  water.  There 
are  three  principal  obstacles  to  the  suc- 
cessful use  of  such  a  device :  when  the 
submersible  is  submerged,  she  employs 
rotary  and  not  reciprocating  prime- 
movers,  being  in  consequence  relatively 
xxxvii 


INTRODUCTION 

quiet  when  running  under  water,  and 
inaudible  at  any  considerable  distance; 
the  noises  of  the  vessel  carrying  the 
listening  devices  are  difficult  to  exclude, 
as  are  also  the  noises  of  the  sea,  which 
are  multitudinous;  finally,  the  sound- 
receiving  instruments  are  not  highly 
directive,  hence  are  not  of  great  assist- 
ance in  determining  the  position  of  the 
object  from  which  they  are  receiving 
sounds.11 

To  locate  the  submersible,  aerial 
observation  has  been  found  useful.  It 
is  particularly  so  when  the  waters  are 
clear  enough  to  observe  the  vessel 
when  submerged  to  some  depth,  but 
its  value  is  less  than  might  be  supposed 
in  the  waters  about  the  British  Isles 

1  Big  strides,  however,  have  been  made  lately  in 
overcoming  these  shortcomings,  and  it  would  appear 
that  the  principle  of  sound-detection  is  the  most 
hopeful  one  for  us  to  follow. 

xxxviii 


INTRODUCTION 

and  Northern  Europe,  where  there  is 
a  great  deal  of  matter  in  suspension 
which  makes  the  sea  unusually  opaque. 
The  submersible,  however,  when  run- 
ning along  the  surface  with  only  its 
periscope  showing,  is  more  easily  de- 
tected by  aircraft  than  by  a  surface 
vessel.  Behind  the  periscope,  there  is 
a  characteristic  small  wake,  which  is 
distinguishable  from  above,  but  practi- 
cally invisible  from  a  low  level  of 
observation.  Many  sea-planes  are 
operating  on  the  other  side  for  the 
purpose  of  locating  enemy  submersibles 
and  reporting  their  presence  to  the 
surface  patrol  craft.  In  order  to  over- 
come the  disadvantages  of  creating  the 
periscope  wake  which  I  have  mentioned, 
it  is  reported  that  the  Germans  have 
developed  special  means  to  allow  the 
U-boats,  when  raiding,  to  submerge 
xxxix 


INTRODUCTION 

to  a  fixed  depth  without  moving.  To 
maintain  any  body  in  a  fluid  medium 
in  a  static  position  is  a  difficult  matter, 
as  is  shown  in  the  instability  of  air- 
craft. One  of  the  great  problems  of 
the  submersible  has  been  to  master 
the  difficulties  of  its  control  while 
maintaining  a  desired  depth.  The 
modern  submersible  usually  forces  itself 
under  water,  while  still  in  a  slightly 
buoyant  condition,  by  its  propellers 
and  by  the  action  of  two  sets  of 
rudders,  or  hydroplanes,  which  are 
arranged  along  its  superstructure  and 
which  tend  to  force  it  below  the  surface 
when  they  are  given  a  certain  inclina- 
tion; but  should  the  engines  stop,  the 
diving  rudders,  or  hydroplanes,  would 
become  ineffective,  and,  because  of  the 
reserve  buoyancy  in  the  hull,  the  vessel 
would  come  to  the  surface. 
xl 


INTRODUCTION 

In  order  to  maintain  the  vessel  in  a 
state  of  suspension  under  water  with- 
out moving,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
hold  an  extremely  delicate  balance 
between  the  weight  of  the  submarine 
and  that  of  the  water  which  it  displaces. 
Variations  in  weights  are  so  important 
to  the  submersible  that,  as  fuel  is  used, 
water  is  allowed  to  enter  certain  tanks 
to  compensate  exactly  for  the  loss  of 
the  weight  of  the  fuel.  To  obtain  such 
an  equilibrium,  an  automatic  device 
controlled  by  the  pressure  of  the  water, 
which,  of  course,  varies  with  the  depth, 
is  used.  This  device  controls  the 
pumps  which  fill  or  empty  the  ballast- 
tanks,  so  as  to  keep  the  relation  of  the 
submersible  to  the  water  which  it 
displaces  constant,  under  which  con- 
dition the  vessel  maintains  a  fixed 
depth.  The  principle  of  this  mechan- 
xli 


INTRODUCTION 

ism  is,  of  course,  old,  and  was  first 
embodied  in  the  Whitehead  torpedo, 
which  has  a  device  that  can  be  set  so 
as  to  maintain  the  depth  at  which  it 
will  run  practically  constant.  With 
the  addition  of  a  telescopic  periscope, 
which  can  be  shortened  or  extended  at 
will,  it  will  be  possible  for  the  U-boat 
to  lie  motionless  with  only  the  minute 
surface  of  the  periscope  revealing  her 
position. 

s 

nr 

To  attack  the  submersible  is  a  matter 
of  opportunity.  It  is  only  when  one  is 
caught  operating  on  the  surface,  or  is 
forced  to  the  surface  by  becoming 
entangled  in  nets,  that  the  patrol 
has  the  chance  to  fire  upon  it.  Against 
this  method  of  attack,  modern  sub- 
mersibles  have  been  improving  their 
xlii 


INTRODUCTION 

defenses.  To-day,  they  are  shielded 
with  armor  of  some  weight  on  the 
superstructure  and  over  part  of  the 
hull.  They  are  also  equipped  with 
guns  up  to  five  inches  in  diameter, 
and,  affording,  as  they  do,  a  fairly 
steady  base,  they  can  outmatch  in  gun- 
play any  of  the  lighter  patrol  boats 
which  they  may  encounter. 

One  of  the  important  improvements 
which  have  been  made  has  resulted  in 
the  increased  speed  with  which  they 
now  submerge  from  the  condition  of  sur- 
face trim.  A  submersible  of  a  thousand 
tons  displacement  will  carry  about  five 
hundred  tons  of  water  ballast.  The 
problem  of  submerging  is  mainly  that 
of  being  able  rapidly  to  fill  the  tanks. 
On  account  of  the  necessity  of  dealing 
with  large  quantities  of  water  in  the 
ballast  system,  the  European  submersi- 

xliii 


INTRODUCTION 

bles  are  equipped  with  pumps  which  can 
handle  eight  tons  of  water  per  minute. 
Again,  the  speed  which  the  electri- 
cal propulsion  system  gives  the  vessel 
on  the  surface  greatly  increases  the 
pressure  which  the  diving  rudders  can 
exert  in  forcing  the  submersible  under 
water.  This  effect  may  be  so  marked 
that  it  becomes  excessive,  and  Sueter 
emphasizes  the  point  that  vessels  at 
high  speed,  when  moving  under  water, 
may,  on  account  of  the  momentum 
attained,  submerge  to  excessive  depths. 
To  eliminate  this  tendency,  there  is  a 
hydrostatic  safety  system  which  auto- 
matically causes  the  discharge  of  water 
from  the  ballast-tank  when  dangerous 
pressures  are  reached,  thus  bringing 
the  submersible  to  a  higher  level  where 
the  pressure  on  the  hull  will  not  be  so 
severe.  From  this  it  follows  that  the 
xliv 


Photograph  from  Underwood  &*  Underwood. 
INTERIOR  OF  A   SUBMARINE 


INTRODUCTION 

opportunity  of  ramming  a  submersible, 
or  of  sinking  it  by  gunfire,  is  greatly 
minimized,  since  the  vessel  can  dis- 
appear so  rapidly. 

A  great  deal  has  been  attempted 
with  nets.  Fixed  nets  extend  across 
many  of  the  bodies  of  water  around 
the  British  Isles.  Their  positions, 
doubtless,  are  now  very  well  known  to 
the  Germans.  The  problem  of  cutting 
through  them  is  not  a  difficult  one. 
Moreover,  the  hull  of  the  submersible 
has  been  modified  so  that  the  pro- 
pellers are  almost  entirely  shielded 
and  incased  in  such  a  way  that  they 
will  not  foul  the  lines  of  a  net.  There 
has  also  been  a  steel  hawser  strung  from 
the  bow  across  the  highest  point  of  the 
vessel  to  the  stern,  so  that  the  sub- 
mersible can  underrun  a  net  without 
entangling  the  superstructure.  Some 
xlv 


INTRODUCTION 

nets  are  towed  by  surface  vessels. 
The  process  is  necessarily  slow,  and 
to  be  effective  the  surface  vessel  must 
know  the  exact  location  of  the  sub- 
mersible. Towing  torpedoes  or  high 
explosive  charges  behind  moving  ves- 
sels has  been  developed  by  the  Italian 
Navy,  but  the  chances  of  hitting  a 
submersible  with  such  devices  are  not 
very  great. 

Bomb-dropping  from  aeroplanes  can 
be  practiced  successfully  under  ex- 
ceptional conditions  only.  In  view 
of  the  fact  that  such  bomb-dropping 
is  exceedingly  inaccurate,  and  that 
the  charges  carried  are  relatively 
small,  this  form  of  attack  ordinarily 
would  not  be  very  dangerous  for  the 
submersible.  Surface  craft  have  also 
employed  large  charges  of  high  ex- 
plosives, which  are  caused  to  detonate 

xlvi 


INTRODUCTION 

by  hydrostatic  pistons  upon  reaching 
a  certain  depth.  Patrol  boats  carry 
such  charges  in  order  to  overrun  the 
submersible,  drop  the  charges  in  its 
vicinity,  and  by  the  pressure  of  the 
underwater  explosion  crush  its  hull. 
Since  the  pressure  of  an  underwater 
explosion  diminishes  rapidly  as  the 
distance  increases  from  the  point  of 
detonation,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
place  the  explosive  charge  fairly  close 
to  the  hull  of  the  submersible  to  be 
certain  of  its  destruction.  To  accom- 
plish this,  it  would  seem  that  the  ideal 
combination  would  be  the  control  of 
an  explosive  carrier  by  radio  energy 
directly  from  an  aeroplane.  Thus  we 
would  have  a  large  explosive  charge 
under  water  where  it  can  most  effec- 
tively injure  the  submersible,  controlled 
by  the  guidance  of  an  observer  in  the 
xlvii 


INTRODUCTION 

position   best    suited    to    watch    the 
movements  of  the  submerged  target. 

The  third  method  by  which  to 
frustrate  the  attack  of  the  submersible 
is  to  give  better  protection  to  the 
merchant  marine  itself.  While  a  great 
deal  of  ingenuity  is  being  concentrated 
on  the  problem  of  thwarting  the  sub- 
mersible, but  little  common  sense  has 
been  used.  While  endeavoring  to 
devise  intricate  and  ingenious  mech- 
anisms to  sink  the  submersible,  we 
overlook  the  simplest  safeguards  for 
our  merchant  vessels.  To-day,  the  con- 
struction of  the  average  ship  is  de- 
signed to  conform  to  the  insurance 
requirements.  This  does  not  mean  in 
any  way  that  the  ship  is  so  constructed 
as  to  be  truly  safe.  Thousands  of 
vessels  that  are  plying  the  seas  to-day 
are  equipped  with  bulkheads  that  are 
xlviii 


INTRODUCTION 

absolutely  useless  because  they  do  not 
extend  high  enough  to  prevent  the 
water  from  running  from  one  part  of 
the  ship  to  another  when  the  ship  is 
partially  submerged.  Then  again,  the 
pumping  system  is  so  arranged  as  to 
reach  the  water  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
hull  when  the  ship  is  up  by  the  head. 
Should  the  ship  be  injured  in  the 
forward  part  and  sink  by  the  head, 
these  pumps  would  be  unable  to  reach 
the  incoming  water  before  her  con- 
dition had  become  desperate.  There 
is  a  vessel  operating  from  New  York 
to-day  worth  approximately  a  million 
dollars,  and  if  she  were  equipped  with 
suitable  pumps,  which  would  cost  about 
a  thousand  dollars,  her  safety  would 
be  increased  about  forty  per  cent.  Her 
owners,  however,  prefer  running  the 
risk  of  losing  her  to  expending  a 

xlix 


INTRODUCTION 

thousand  dollars!  If  the  merchant 
vessels  were  made  more  torpedo-proof, 
it  would  be  an  important  discourage- 
ment to  the  U-boat  commander.  Dur- 
ing the  past  two  years  of  the  war, 
nineteen  battleships  have  been  tor- 
pedoed, and  out  of  this  number  only 
three  have  been  sunk,  showing  that  it 
is  possible  by  proper  construction  to 
improve  the  hull  of  a  ship  to  such  an 
extent  that  it  is  almost  torpedo-proof. 
While  it  may  not  be  practicable,  on 
account  of  the  cost,  to  build  merchant 
vessels  along  the  lines  of  armed  ships, 
nevertheless  much  could  be  done  to 
improve  their  structural  strength  and 
safety;  and  since  speed  is  an  essential 
factor  in  circumventing  torpedo  at- 
tack, new  cargo-carriers  should  be 
constructed  to  be  as  fast  as  is  feasible. 
So  radically  have  conditions  changed 
1 


INTRODUCTION 

that  to-day  we  have  a  superabundance 
of  useless  dreadnaught  power.  The 
smaller  guns  of  some  of  these  vessels, 
and  their  gun  crews,  would  be  far  more 
useful  on  the  merchant  vessels  than 
awaiting  the  far-off  day  when  the 
German  fleet  shall  venture  forth  again. 
The  submersible  must  be  driven  below 
the  surface  by  a  superiority  of  gunfire 
on  the  part  of  the  merchant  marine 
and  its  patrols.  In  this  way  the  sub- 
mersible would  be  dependent  upon  the 
torpedo  alone,  a  weapon  of  distinct  lim- 
itations. In  order  to  use  it  effectively, 
the  submersible  must  be  not  more 
than  from  eight  hundred  to  two  thou- 
sand yards  from  its  target,  and  must 
run  submerged  at  reduced  speed,  thus 
greatly  lessening  its  potentiality  for 
destruction.  To-day,  submersibles  are 
actually  running  down  and  destroying 
li 


INTRODUCTION 

merchant  vessels  by  gunfire.  If  mer- 
chant vessels  carried  two  high-speed 
patrol  launches  equipped  with  three- 
inch  guns  of  the  Davis  non-recoil  type, 
and  these  vessels  were  lowered  in  the 
danger  zone  as  a  convoy  to  the  ship, 
such  a  scheme  would  greatly  lessen 
the  enormous  task  of  the  present 
patrol.  In  the  event  of  gunfire  attack 
by  a  submersible,  three  vessels  would  be 
on  the  alert  to  answer  her  fire  instead  of 
one:  an  important  factor  in  discourag- 
ing submersibles  from  surface  attack! 

The  future  of  the  submarine  cam- 
paign is  of  vital  importance.  The 
prospect  is  not  very  cheerful.  Laubeuf 
states  that  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war  Germany  had  not  over  thirty- 
eight  submersibles.  This  statement 
may  be  taken  with  a  grain  of  salt; 
the  Germans  do  not  advertise  what 
lii 


INTRODUCTION 

they  have.  It  is  probable,  however, 
that  to-day  they  have  not  more  than 
two  hundred  submersibles  in  operation. 
Over  four  thousand  patrol  boats  are 
operating  against  this  relatively  small 
number,  and  yet  sinkings  continue  at 
an  alarming  rate.  It  is  estimated  that 
Germany  will  be  able  to  produce  a 
thousand  submersibles  in  the  coming 
year  and  man  these  vessels  with  crews 
from  her  blockaded  ships.  This  will 
be  a  tremendous  addition  to  the 
number  she  has  now  in  operation.  The 
greater  the  number  of  submersibles 
she  has  in  action,  the  greater  the  area 
the  submarine  campaign  will  cover. 
The  number  of  patrol  vessels  will  have 
to  be  increased  in  direct  proportion  to 
the  area  of  the  submarine  zone.  Since 
a  large  number  of  patrol  boats  has  to 
operate  against  each  submersible,  it 
liii 


INTRODUCTION 

will  be  seen  that  a  tremendous  fleet 
will  have  to  be  placed  in  commission 
to  offset  a  thousand  submersibles. 
Thus  the  problem  becomes  increasingly 
difficult,  and  the  protection  of  the 
trade  route  will  be  no  more  thoroughly 
effected  than  it  is  to-day  —  unless  we 
overwhelm  the  enemy  by  a  tremendous 
fleet  of  destroyers. 


liv 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

VAN  FORSTNER 


ORDERED  TO  COMMAND  A  SUBMARINE 

EVERY  year  about  the  first  of 
October,  at  the  time  of  the  great 
army  maneuvers,  new  appointments 
are  also  made  in  the  navy;  but,  unlike 
our  army  brothers,  who  from  beginning 
to  end  remain  permanently  either  in 
the  artillery,  cavalry,  or  infantry,  we 
officers  of  the  navy  are  shifted  from 
cruiser  to  torpedo  boat,  from  the  ship 
of  the  line  to  the  hated  office  desk  on 
land  at  the  Admiralty,  in  order  to  fit 
us  to  serve  our  Almighty  War  Lord  in 
every  capacity  and  to  the  best  advan- 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

tage.  The  commander  of  a  torpedo 
boat  must  be  familiar  with  the  service 
on  board  a  dreadnaught  or  on  any 
other  large  ship,  for  only  those  who  are 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  kind 
of  ship  they  are  going  to  attack 
possess  sufficient  skill  to  destroy  it. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  autumn  of 
190-  some  of  us  were  surprised  at  the 
announcement:  "Ordered  on  board  a 
submarine."  This  order  naturally  met 
with  an  immediate  response,  but  it 
brought  a  new  outlook  on  the  possibili- 
ties of  our  career,  for  we  had  not  yet 
been  trained  to  this  branch  of  the 
service  which  our  Almighty  War  Lord 
had  only  recently  added  to  the  Imperial 
Navy.  The  question  was,  should  we 
be  able  to  perform  this  new  duty? 

It  is  well  known  that  the  French 
were  the  first  to  complete  a  type  of 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

submarine  navigable  underseas,  and 
the  English  unwillingly,  but  with  a  sly 
anticipation  of  coming  events,  copied 
this  type  of  boat. 

To  all  outward  appearance  we  kept 
aloof  from  following  the  example  of 
our  neighbors,  and  our  chiefs  of  the 
Admiralty  were  beset  with  expostula- 
tions on  the  subject,  but  they  were 
silently  biding  their  time  while  our 
enemies  of  to-day  were  bragging  "about 
their  successful  experiments  with  their 
newly  constructed  submarines.  To  the 
dismay  and  astonishment  of  our  oppo- 
nents it  was  only  when  the  right  hour 
had  struck  that  our  navy  revealed  that 
it  had  similar  weapons  at  its  com- 
mand; it  therefore  prepared  for  them 
some  disagreeable  surprises,  and  set 
its  special  seal  from  the  very  beginning 
on  the  maritime  warfare. 
3 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

I  remember  a  talk  I  had  with  an  old 
army  officer  a  few  years  ago,  when  I 
had  just  received  my  appointment  to 
a  submarine.  We  were  speaking  of 
U-boats  and  aeroplanes,  and  he  ex- 
claimed: "Ach!  my  dear  Forstner,  give 
it  up !  The  bottom  of  the  ocean  is  for 
fishes,  and  the  sky  is  for  birds." 

What  would  have  happened  to  us  in 
this  war  had  we  not  so  proudly  excelled 
above  the  earth  and  beneath  the  sea? 

At  first  a  mystery  still  veiled  our 
knowledge  concerning  our  submarines; 
we  were  told  that  the  dear,  good,  old 
U-boat  No.  1  had  splendidly  stood 
every  test,  and  shortly  after,  in  Octo- 
ber, 19G-,  I  went  on  board,  and  had 
the  honor  later  to  command  her  for 
two  years.  But  during  this  period,  for 
several  years,  the  greatest  secrecy  sur- 
rounded this  new  weapon  of  our  navy; 
4 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

strictest  orders  were  given  to  admit  no 
one  on  board,  not  even  high  officers; 
only  admirals  were  allowed  to  penetrate 
within,  and  on  every  matter  concerning 
our  U-boats  we  had  to  maintain  abso- 
lute silence.  Now,  however,  that  our 
usefulness  has  been  so  fully  justified, 
the  veil  of  discretion  can  be  somewhat 
lifted,  and  I  can  describe  within  certain 
limits  the  life  and  activities  on  board  a 
submarine. 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

II 

BREATHING  AND  LIVING  CONDITIONS  * 
UNDER  WATER 

A  SUBMARINE  conceals  within 
its  small  compass  the  most  con- 
centrated technical  disposition  known 
in  the  art  of  mechanical  construction, 
especially  so  in  the  spaces  reserved  for 
the  steering  gear  of  the  boat  and  for 
the  manipulation  of  its  weapons. 

The  life  on  board  becomes  such  a 
matter  of  habit  that  we  can  peacefully 
sleep  at  great  depths  under  the  sea, 
while  the  noise  is  distinctly  heard  of 
the  propellers  of  the  enemy's  ships, 
hunting  for  us  overhead;  for  water  is 
an  excellent  sound  conductor,  and 
conveys  from  a  long  distance  the  ap- 
proach of  a  steamer.  We  are  often 
6 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

asked,  "How  can  you  breathe  under 
water?"  The  health  of  our  crew  is  the 
best  proof  that  this  is  fully  possible. 
We  possessed  as  fellow  passengers  a 
dozen  guinea  pigs,  the  gift  of  a  kindly 
and  anxious  friend,  who  had  been 
told  these  little  creatures  were  very 
sensitive  to  the  ill  effects  of  a  vitiated 
atmosphere.  They  flourished  in  our 
midst  and  proved  amusing  companions. 
It  is  essential  before  a  U-boat  sub- 
merges to  drive  out  the  exhausted  air 
through  powerful  ventilating  machines, 
and  to  suck  in  the  purest  air  obtainable; 
but  often  in  war  time  one  is  obliged  to 
dive  with  the  emanations  of  cooking, 
machine  oil,  and  the  breath  of  the  crew 
still  permeating  the  atmosphere,  for  it 
is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the 
success  of  a  submarine  attack  that  the 
enemy  should  not  detect  our  presence; 
7 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

therefore,  it  is  impossible  at  such  short 
notice  to  clear  the  air  within  the  boat. 
These  conditions,  however,  are  bear- 
able, although  one  must  be  constantly 
on  the  watch  to  supply  in  time  fresh 
ventilation. 

Notwithstanding  certain  assertions 
in  the  press  of  alleged  discoveries  to 
supply  new  sources  of  air,  the  actual 
amount  remains  unchanged  from  the 
moment  of  submersion,  and  there  is 
no  possibility,  either  through  ventila- 
tors or  any  other  device  so  far  known 
in  U-boat  construction,  to  draw  in  fresh 
air  under  water;  this  air,  however,  can 
be  purified  from  the  carbonic  acid  gas 
exhalations  by  releasing  the  necessary 
proportion  of  oxygen.  If  the  carbonic 
acid  gas  increases  in  excess  proportion 
then  it  produces  well-known  symptoms, 
in  a  different  degree,  in  different  in- 
8 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

dividuals,  such  as  extreme  fatigue  and 
violent  headaches.  Under  such  con- 
ditions the  crew  would  be  unable  to 
perform  the  strenuous  maneuver  de- 
manded of  it,  and  the  carbonic  acid 
must  be  withdrawn  and  oxygen  ad- 
mitted. 

The  ventilation  system  of  the  en- 
tire submarine  is  connected  with  cer- 
tain chemicals,  through  which  the  air 
circulates,  whose  [property jis  to  absorb 
and  retain  the  carbonic  acid.  Prep- 
arations of  potassium  are  usually  em- 
ployed for  this  purpose.  Simultane- 
ously, cylinders  of  oxygen,  under  fairly 
high  pressure,  spray  oxygen  into  the 
ventilation  system,  which  is  released 
in  a  measure  proportionate  to  the 
number  of  the  crew;  there  is  a  meter 
in  the  distributing  section  of  the  oxygen 
tubes,  which  is  set  to  act  automatically 
9 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

at  a  certain  ratio  per  man.  The  ordi- 
nary atmosphere  is  bearable  for  a  long 
time  and  this  costly  method  of  cleans- 
ing the  air  is  used  only  as  a  last  resort; 
the  moment  at  which  it  must  be 
employed  is  closely  calculated  to  cor- 
respond, not  only  with  the  atmospheric 
conditions  at  the  time  of  submersion, 
but  also  to  the  cubic  quantity  of  air 
apportioned  to  each  man  according  to 
his  activities  and  according  to  the  size 
of  the  boat. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  clear  the  air 
artificially  during  a  short  submersion, 
but  during  prolonged  ones  it  is  advis- 
able to  begin  doing  so  at  an  early  hour 
to  prevent  the  carbonic  acid  gas  from 
gaining  a  disproportionate  percentage, 
as  it  becomes  then  more  difficult  to 
control,  and  it  is  obvious  that  it  is 
impossible  to  dissipate  the  fumes  of 
10 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

cooking,  the  odors  of  the  machine  oil, 
and  the  breath  of  the  crew. 

Taken  altogether  one  can  live  com- 
fortably underseas,  although  "there  is 
a  certain  discomfort  from  the  ever- 
increasing  warmth  produced  by  the 
working  of  the  electrical  machinery, 
and  from  the  condensation  created  by 
the  high  temperature  on  the  surface  of 
the  boat  plunged  in  cold  water,  which 
is  more  noticeable  in  winter  and  in 
colder  regions. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the 
occupations  of  the  crew  determine  the 
atmospheric  conditions:  the  quantity 
of  air  required  by  a  human  body  de- 
pends entirely  on  its  activity.  A  man 
working  hard  absorbs  in  an  hour  eighty- 
five  liters  of  air.  Besides  the  comman- 
der, who  i  is  vigorously  engaged  in  the 
turret,  —  as  will  be  hereafter  described, 
ii 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

—  the  men,  employed  on  the  lateral 
and  depth  steering,  and  those  handling 
the  torpedo  tubes,  are  doing  hard 
physical  work.  The  inactive  men  use 
up  a  far  smaller  quantity  of  air,  and 
it  is  ascertained  that  a  man  asleep  re- 
quires hourly  only  fifteen  liters  of  air. 
A  well-drilled  crew,  off  duty,  is  there- 
fore expected  to  sleep  at  once,  undis- 
turbed by  the  noise  around  them,  and 
their  efficiency  is  all  the  greater  when 
the  time  comes  to  relieve  their  weary 
comrades.  We  had  a  wireless  operator 
on  board  whose  duties  ceased  after 
submersion,  and  he  had  so  well  per- 
fected the  art  of  sleeping  that  he  never 
cost  us  more  than  fifteen  liters  of  air, 
hourly,  underseas. 

The  length  of  time  that  a  U-boat  can 
remain  under  water  depends,  as  we 
stated  above,  on  the  atmospheric  con- 
12 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

ditions  at  the  moment  of  plunging,  and 
on  the  amount  of  oxygen  and  chemicals 
taken  on  board.  We  can  stay  sub- 
merged for  several  days,  and  a  longer 
period  will  probably  never  be  necessary. 
The  distance  of  vision  varies  some- 
what under  water,  as  we  look  out  from 
the  side  windows  cut  into  the  steel 
armor  of  the  commander's  conning 
tower.  We  can  naturally  see  farther 
in  the  clear  water  of  the  deep  ocean 
than  in  the  turbid,  dirty  water  at  the 
mouth  of  a  river,  and  the  surface  of 
the  water-bottom  has  a  direct  influence 
on  the  sight,  which  is  far  more  distinct 
over  a  light  sand  than  over  dark  sea- 
weed or  black  rocks,  and  at  an  upper 
level  the  sunshine  is  noticeable  many 
meters  under  water.  But  in  any  case, 
the  vision  underseas  is  of  the  shortest, 
and  does  not  extend  beyond  a  few 
i3 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

meters;  light  objects  and  even  the  stem 
and  stern  of  our  own  boat  are  invisible 
from  the  turret.  We  are  unaware, 
therefore,  of  advancing  ships,  derelicts, 
or  projecting  rocks,  and  no  lookout 
can  preserve  us  from  these  dangers. 

The  crew  is  entirely  ignorant  of  their 
surroundings.  Only  the  commander 
in  his  turret  surveys  through  the 
periscope  now  and  then  a  small  sector 
of  the  horizon;  and  in  turning  round 
the  periscope  he  gradually  perceives 
the  entire  horizon.  But  this  survey 
demands  great  physical  exertion,  which 
on  a  long  cruise  is  most  fatiguing.  The 
periscopes  erected  through  the  upper 
cover  of  the  turret  must  not  be  too 
easily  turned  in  their  sockets,  and  the 
latter  are  very  tightly  screwed  in,  for 
otherwise  they  would  not  be  able  to 
resist  the  water  pressure  at  a  great 
i4 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

depth.  The  effort  of  simply  turning 
the  periscope  is  so  exhausting  that 
casual  observations  of  the  horizon  are 
made  by  the  officer  of  the  watch;  but 
during  naval  maneuvers  or  in  time  of 
war,  the  commander  alone  manipulates 
the  periscope.  It  is  essential  in  this 
case  that  the  periscope  should  not  arise 
needlessly  above  water  and  betray  the 
presence  of  the  U-boat. 

The  commander  must  possess  the 
absolute  confidence  of  his  crew,  for 
their  lives  are  in  his  hands.  In  this 
small  and  carefully  selected  company, 
each  man,  from  the  commanding  officer 
down  to  the  sailor  boy  and  down  to  the 
stoker,  knows  that  each  one  is  serving 
in  his  own  appointed  place,  and  they  per- 
form their  duties  serenely  and  efficiently. 

I  have  always  allowed  every  man  on 
board  once,  in  turn,  to  have  a  look 
i5 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

through  the  periscope;  it  is  their  high- 
est ambition,  and  the  result  is  excellent, 
for  it  reassures  them  and  they  feel  more 
confident  as  to  their  own  safety  after 
the  granting  of  this  small  favor. 

As  we  advance  underseas,  unless 
passing  through  a  school  of  fish,  we 
seldom  see  any  fish,  for  the  noise  of 
the  propellers  frightens  them  away; 
but  when  we  lie  at  rest  on  the  bottom 
of  the  ocean,  the  electric  lights  allure 
them,  and  they  come  and  stare  at  us 
with  goggling  eyes  close  to  the  windows 
in  the  turret. 

The  life,  therefore,  in  our  "cylinder" 
as  we  call  it,  offers  a  good  deal  of  variety. 
The  term  "cylinder"  is  exact,  for  the 
inner  conformation  of  a  submarine  is 
necessarily  rounded,  so  that  relatively 
thin  partitions  can  successfully  resist 
the  greatest  pressure  of  water. 
16 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 
III 

SUBMERSION  AND   TORPEDO   FIRE 

ANEW  passenger,  for  the  first  time 
in  a  submarine,  has  often  pro- 
fessed to  be  unaware  that  he  was 
fathoms  deep  under  water  and  has  been 
quite  unconscious  that  the  boat  had 
been  diving.  Of  course  his  astonish- 
ment indicates  that  he  was  not  in  the 
compartment  where  these  maneuvers 
take  place,  for  it  is  in  the  commander's 
turret  that  the  whole  apparatus  is 
centralized  for  submersion,  for  steer- 
ing to  the  right  depth,  and  also  for 
emersion.  At  this  juncture  every  man 
must  be  at  his  post,  and  each  one  of 
the  thirty  members  of  the  crew  must 
feel  individually  responsible  for  the 

'7 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

safety  of  the  whole  in  the  difficult  and 
rapid  maneuver  of  plunging,  for  the 
slightest  mistake  may  endanger  the 
security  of  the  boat. 

The  central  control,  situated  in  the 
commander's  turret,  is  in  reality  the 
brain  of  the  boat.  When  the  alarm 
signal  is  heard  to  change  the  course  from 
surface  navigation  to  subsurface  navi- 
gation, several  previously  designated 
members  of  the  crew  take  their  post 
of  duty  in  the  commander's  turret. 
The  commander,  himself,  is  on  duty 
during  the  whole  of  the  expedition  in 
time  of  war,  and  he  seldom  gets  a 
chance  for  rest  in  his  tiny  little  cabin. 
Day  and  night,  if  there  is  the  slightest 
suspicion  of  the  approach  of  the  enemy, 
he  watches  on  the  exposed  bridge  on 
the  top  of  the  turret;  for  a  few  sec- 
onds' delay  in  submerging  might  for- 
18 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

feit  the  taking  of  a  much  coveted  prize. 
So  he  learns  to  do  without  sleep,  or 
to  catch  a  few  brief  seconds  of  re- 
pose by  lying  down  in  his  wet  clothes, 
and  he  is  at  once  ready  to  respond 
to  the  alarm  signal  of  the  officer  of  the 
watch. 

In  one  bound  he  is  once  more  survey- 
ing the  horizon  through  the  periscope, 
or  mounts  to  the  bridge  to  determine 
with  his  powerful  field  glass  whether 
friend  or  foe  is  in  sight.  His  observa- 
tions must  be  taken  in  the  space  of  a 
few  seconds,  for  the  enemy  is  also 
constantly  on  the  lookout,  and  con- 
tinual practice  enables  the  sailor  in 
the  crow's  nest  to  detect  the  slender 
stem  of  a  periscope,  although  the  hull 
of  the  boat  is  scarcely  visible  on  the 
face  of  the  waters. 

The  commander  must  come  to  a 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

prompt  decision  as  soon  as  he  locates 
the  adversary's  exact  position.  Not 
only  may  a  retarded  submersion  spoil 
our  plan  of  attack,  but  we  are  exposed 
to  being  rammed  by  a  rapidly  advanc- 
ing steamer;  our  haste  must  be  all  the 
greater  if  the  conditions  of  visibility 
are  impaired,  as  is  often  the  case  on 
the  high  seas,  for  it  takes  time  for  the 
U-boat  to  submerge  completely,  and 
during  this  process  it  is  helplessly 
exposed  to  the  fire  of  long  distance 
guns. 

Calmly,  but  with  great  decision,  the 
commander  gives  the  general  orders 
to  submerge.  The  internal  combustion 
engines,  the  oil  motors  which,  during 
surface  navigation  are  used  to  ac- 
celerate the  speed  of  the  boat,  are 
immediately  disconnected,  as  they  con- 
sume too  much  air  underseas,  and 

20 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

electric  motors  are  now  quickly  at- 
tached and  set  in  motion.  They  are 
supplied  by  a  large  storage  battery, 
which  consumes  no  air  and  forms  the 
motive  power  during  subsurface  navi- 
gation. Of  course  electricity  might 
be  employed  above  water,  but  it  uses 
up  much  current  which  is  far  more 
expensive  than  oil,  and  would  be 
wasted  too  rapidly  if  not  economized 
with  care. 

It  would  be  convenient  to  employ 
the  same  oil  motor  for  underseas 
navigation,  but  such  a  machine  has  not 
yet  been  constructed,  although  various 
futile  attempts  of  this  kind  have  been 
made.  With  only  one  system  of  pro- 
pulsion we  should  gain  much  coveted 
space  and  a  more  evenly  distributed 
weight;  within  the  same  dimensions 
new  weapons  of  attack  could  be  in- 

21 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

serted,  and  also  effective  weapons  of 
defense.  The  inventor  of  such  a  device 
would  earn  a  large  reward.  Let  him 
who  wants  it,  try  for  it! 

Quickly,  with  deft  hands,  the  out- 
board connections,  which  served  as 
exhausts  for  the  oil  motors,  must  be 
closed  in  such  a  way  as  to  resist  at 
once  the  high  water  pressure.  It  is 
well  known  that  for  every  ten  meters 
under  water  we  oppose  the  pressure 
of  one  atmosphere  —  one  kilogram  to 
the  square  centimeter  —  and  we  must 
be  prepared  to  dive  to  far  greater 
depths. 

When  all  these  openings  have  been 
carefully  closed  and  fastened,  then 
begins  the  maneuver  of  submersion. 
The  sea  water  is  admitted  into  big  open 
tanks.  Powerful  suction  engines,  in  the 
central  control  of  the  boat,  draw  out 

22 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

the  air  from  these  tanks  so  as  to  in- 
crease the  rapid  inrush  of  the  water. 
The  chief  engineer  notifies  the  captain 
as  soon  as  the  tanks  are  sufficiently 
filled  and  an  even  weight  is  established 
so  as  to  steer  the  boat  to  the  proper 
depth  for  attack.  Notwithstanding 
the  noise  of  the  machinery,  large,  wide- 
open  speaking  tubes  facilitate  the  de- 
livery of  orders  between  the  com- 
mander's turret  and  the  Central,  and 
now  is  the  moment  the  commander 
gives  the  order  to  submerge. 

All  this  may  sound  very  simple  and 
yet  there  are  a  great  many  things  to 
consider.  In  the  same  manner  in 
which  an  airplane  is  carefully  balanced 
before  taking  wing  into  the  high  regions 
of  the  sky,  a  submarine  must  be 
accurately  weighed  and  measured  be- 
fore it  descends  into  the  watery  depths 
28 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

of  the  ocean.  The  briny  water  of  the 
North  Sea  weighs  far  more  than  the 
less  salty  water  of  the  Baltic  Sea, 
whose  western  basin  is  composed  of 
practically  fresh  water.  A  boat  floats 
higher  in  the  heavily  salted  waters 
of  the  North  Sea  and  lies  deeper  and 
plunges  farther  down  in  the  waters  of 
the  Baltic.  The  same  U-boat,  therefore, 
must  take  into  its  tanks  a  greater, 
quantity  of  water  ballast  in  the  North 
Sea,  to  be  properly  weighted,  than 
when  diving  into  fresher  waters.  Even 
with  small  submarines  of  400  tons 
displacement,  there  is  the  enormous 
difference  of  10  tons  between  1.025 
specific  weight  in  the  intake  of  North 
Sea  water  and  1.000  specific  weight 
of  fresh  water.  On  the  other  hand,  if 
too  much  water  is  admitted  into  the 
tanks,  the  submarine  may  plunge  with 
24 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

great  velocity  deeper  and  deeper  be- 
yond its  appointed  depth,  and  in  such 
a  case  it  might  even  happen  that  the 
hull  of  the  boat  could  not  withstand 
the  overpowering  pressure  and  would 
be  crushed  beneath  the  mass  of  water. 
And  yet  again  if  too  small  a  quantity 
of  water  ballast  is  admitted  into  the 
tanks,  the  boat  may  not  sink  suf- 
ficiently below  the  surface,  and  thus 
we  could  jiot  obtain  an  invisible  attack 
which  is  positively  necessary  for  our 
success. 

How  much  water  then  must  we  take 
in?  The  answer  to  this  question  is  a 
matter  of  instinct,  education,  and  ex- 
perience and  we  must  also  depend  on 
the  cleverly  devised  apparatus  made 
for  this  purpose. 

The  submarine  like  the  airplane 
must  be  always  maintained  at  the 

25 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

proper  level.  The  weight  of  the  boat 
varies  continually  during  a  prolonged 
voyage.  Food  is  devoured  and  the 
diving  material  of  the  machinery  is 
consumed.  The  water  in  which  the 
boat  swims  continually  changes  weight 
and  the  boat  is  imperceptibly  raised 
or  lowered  in  a  way  very  difficult  to 
ascertain.  The  officer  responsible  for 
the  flooding  of  the  submarine  must 
painstakingly  keep  its  weight  under 
control  during  the  entire  navigation. 
The  weight  of  a  meal  eaten  by  each 
man  of  the  crew,  the  remains  of  the 
food  and  the  boxes  in  which  it  was 
contained, .  which  have  been  thrown 
overboard,  must  be  calculated  as  well 
as  the  weight  of  the  water,  and  the 
officer  employs  delicate  apparatus  for 
these  measurements. 
On  the  open  seas  these  alterations 
26 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

in  weight  do  not  occur  very  rapidly; 
but  whenever  a  boat  approaches  the 
mouth  of  a  river,  then  the  transition 
from  salt  to  fresh  water  happens  very 
suddenly  and  may  provoke  the  un- 
desirable disturbances  to  which  we  have 
already  alluded.  Also  warm  and  cold 
currents  at  different  depths  produce 
thermotic  conditions,  which  surpris- 
ingly change  the  weight  of  the  water. 

Peculiar  as  it  may  appear,  a  sub- 
marine must  be  lightened  to  descend 
to  a  very  great  depth,  whereas,  in 
steering  to  a  higher  level,  more  water 
must  be  admitted  into  the  tanks  to 
prevent  our  emerging  to  the  surface 
with  too  great  suddenness.  This  de- 
mands careful  attention,  skill,  and 
experience. 

The  principal  condition  for  the  suc- 
cess of  a  submarine  attack  is  to  steer 
27 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

to  the  exact  depth  required.  The 
periscope  must  not  rise  too  far  above 
water,  for  it  might  easily  be  observed  by 
the  enemy;  but. [if,  by  clumsy  steering, 
the  top  of  the  periscope  descends  below 
the  waves,  then  it  becomes  impossible 
to  take  aim  to  fire  the  torpedo.  The 
commander  therefore  must  be  able  to 
depend  on  the  two  men  who  control 
the  vertical  and  horizontalfrudders, 
whom  another  officer  constantly  directs 
and  supervises. 

When  the  boat  has  reached  the 
prescribed  depth  a  close  examination 
is  made  of  all  the  outward-leading 
pipes,  to  see  if  they  can  properly  re- 
sist the  water  pressure;  if  any  tiny 
leak  has  been  sprung,  every  cap  must 
be  tightly  screwed  down;  for  it  is 
evident  it  would  be  very  undesirable  if 
any  leak  should  occur  and  increase  the 
28 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

heaviness  of  the  submarine.  Absolute 
silence  must  prevail  so  that  any  drip- 
ping or  greater  influx  in  the  tanks  can 
be  observed. 

Quietly  and  silently  the  boat  ad- 
vances against  the  enemy;  the  only 
audible  sounds  are  the  purring  of  the 
electric  motors  and  the  unavoidable 
noise  made  by  the  manipulation  of  the 
vertical  and  horizontal  rudders.  Alert 
and  speechless,  every  man  on  board 
awaits  a  sign  from  the  commander,  who 
is  watching  in  the  turret;  but  some 
time  may  elapse  —  now  that  the  peri- 
scope is  lowered  and  nearly  on  the  level 
of  the  waters  —  before  the  adversary 
becomes  visible  again.  The  ship  may 
have  changed  her  course  and  have 
taken  an  opposite  direction  to  the  one 
she  was  following  at  the  moment  we 
submerged.  In  that  case  she  would  be 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

out  of  reach  and  all  our  preparations 
prove  useless. 

At  various  intervals,  the  commander 
presses  an  electric  button  and  raises  and 
lowers  the  periscope  as  quickly  as 
possible,  so  as  to  take  his  own  observa- 
tion without,  if  possible,  being  observed 
himself;  for  he  knows  that  any  injury 
to  the  periscope  —  his  most  priceless 
jewel  —  would,  as  it  were,  render  the 
boat  blind  and  rob  him  of  the  much 
coveted  laurel  leaves.  During  these 
short  glimpses  the  commander  only 
perceives  a  little  sky  and  the  wide, 
round  plate  of  the  reflected  sea  with 
its  dancing  waves,  while  the  nervous 
tension  of  the  expectant  crew  increases 
every  minute. 

At  last  is  heard  a  joyous  outcry 
from  the  commander,  "The  fellows  are 
coming ! "  —  and  after  one  quick  glance, 
3o 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

to  locate  the  enemy  exactly,  the  peri- 
scope is  lowered.  Now  every  heart 
beats  with  happy  anticipation  and 
every  nerve  quivers  with  excitement. 
The  captain  quickly  issues  his  orders 
for  the  course  to  be  steered  and  for 
the  necessary  navigation.  The  officer 
in  charge  of  the  torpedoes  receives  the 
command  to  clear  the  loaded  torpedo 
for  firing,  while  the  captain  quietly  cal- 
culates, first,  the  relative  position  of 
his  boat  to  the  enemy's  ship,  according 
to  the  course  she  has  taken;  secondly, 
at  which  point  he  must  aim  the  torpedo 
to  take  surest  effect,  and  —  in  the 
same  way  as  in  hunting  a  hare  —  he 
withholds  the  shot  to  correspond  to 
his  victim's  gait. 

Many  thoughts  fly  through  his  brain. 
Here,  among  his  companions,  the  an- 
nihilation  of   the   enemy  will   cause 
3i 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

joyful  enthusiasm,  while  among  them 
their  downfall  will  cause  overwhelming 
sorrow.  But  without  doubt  they  must 
vanish  from  the  seas,  and  only  a  man, 
who  has  experienced  these  sensations, 
knows  how  many  secondary  matters 
occur  to  him  at  such  a  time. 

With  lowered  periscope,  he  sees 
nothing  that  goes  on  above  him  on  the 
sea,  and  like  a  blind  man  the  boat  feels 
its  way  through  the  green  flood.  Every 
possible  event  becomes  a  subject  of 
conjecture.  Will  the  fellow  continue 
on  the  same  course?  Has  he  seen  our 
periscope  in  the  second  it:was  exposed, 
and  is  he  running  away  from  us?  Or, 
on  the  contrary,  having  seen  us,  will 
he  put  on  full  steam  and  try  to  run  us 
down  with  a  fatal  death  stroke  from 
his  prow? 

At  such  an  instant  of  high  nervous 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

tension,  I  have  caught  myself  giving 
superfluous  orders  to  let  myself  relax, 
and  yet  I  knew  that  every  man  was  at 
his  post,  fully  conscious  that  his  own 
safety,  the  safety  of  the  whole  boat, 
and  the  honor  of  the  Fatherland  were 
all  at  stake,  and  dependent  on  his  in- 
dividual effort.  I  knew,  of  course,  that 
each  fine  fellow,  down  in  the  machinery 
room  or  at  the  torpedo  tubes,  had  done 
his  very  best,  and  that  all  his  thoughts 
were  centered  like  mine  in  keen  ex- 
pectancy on  the  firing  of  our  first 
torpedo  —  the  eel  as  we  call  it,  guarded 
with  so  much  love  and  care  —  which 
would  speed  along  accompanied  by  our 
warmest  wishes.  We  give  nicknames 
to  our  torpedoes,  mostly  feminine 
names:  side  by  side  below  lie  "the 
fat  Bertha,"  "the  yellow  Mary,"  and 
"the  shining  Emma,"  and  these  ladies 
33 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

expected  to  be  treated,  like  all  ladies, 
with  the  tenderest  care  and  courtesy. 

Now  comes  the  announcement  from 
the  torpedo  officer,  "The  torpedoes  are 
cleared  for  firing."  He  stands  with  a 
firm  hand  awaiting  the  signal  from  his 
commander  to  permit  the  torpedo  to 
drive  ahead  against  the  hated,  but 
unconscious  adversary,  and  to  bore  its 
way  with  a  loud  report  deep  into  the 
great  steel  flank. 

Once  again  the  periscope  springs  for 
an  instant  to  the  surface  and  then 
glides  back  into  the  protecting  body  of 
the  turret.  The  captain  exclaims,  "We 
are  at  them!"  and  the  news  spreads  like 
wildfire  through  the  crew.  He  gives 
a  last  rapid  order  to  straighten  the 
course  of  the  boat.  The  torpedo  officer 
announces, ' '  Torpedo  ready ' '  —  and  the 
captain,  after  one  quick  glance  through 
34 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

the  periscope,  as  it  slides  back  into  its 
sheath,  immediately  shouts,  "Fire!" 

Even  without  the  prescribed  an- 
nouncement from  the  torpedo  officer 
that  the  torpedo  had  been  set  off,  every 
one  knows  that  it  is  speeding  ahead, 
and  for  a  few  seconds  we  remain  in 
anxious  suspense,  until  a  dull  report 
provokes  throughout  our  boat  loud 
cheers  for  Kaiser  and  for  Empire,  and 
by  this  report  we  know  that  "the  fat 
Bertha"  has  reached  unhindered  her 
destination.  Radiant  with  joy,  the 
commander  breathes  a  sigh  of  relief, 
and  he  does  not  check  the  young  sailor 
at  the  wheel,  who  seeks  to  grasp  his 
hand  and  murmur  his  fervent  congratu- 
lations. But  congratulations  must  be 
postponed  until  we  ascertain  that  our 
success  is  complete. 

And  once  again  the  periscope  runs  up 
35 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

towards  the  laughing  daylight,  while 
the  commander  in  happy  but  earnest 
tones  utters  the  reassuring  words, 
"The  ship  is  sinking,  further  torpedoes 
can  be  spared."  He  then  permits  the 
gratified  torpedo  officer,  who  stands 
by  his  side,  a  quick  glance  through  the 
periscope  to  verify  the  result  of  his  own 
efficiency.  It  is  chiefly  owing  to  the 
care  of  the  personnel  of  the  torpedo 
squad,  that  the  torpedoes  are  main- 
tained in  such  perfect  condition  and 
that  their  aim  is  so  correct;  and  to 
them  is  due  in  great  part  the  success  of 
our  attack. 

The  commander  and  his  officer  ex- 
change a  knowing  look,  for  they  have 
seen  the  enemy's  ship  heavily  listing 
to  one  side,  where  the  water  is  rushing 
into  the  gaping  wound,  and  soon  she 
must  capsize.  They  see  her  crew 
36 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

hastily  lowering  the  life  boats  —  their 
only  means  of  escape  —  and  this  is  a 
sufficient  proof  of  our  victory.  We  can 
depart  now  in  all  security.  Concealing 
our  |  presence,  we  plunge  and  vanish 
beneath  the  waters;  having  reached  a 
certain  distance,  we  stop  to  make  sure 
that  our  victim  lies  at  the  bottom  of 
the  ocean.  We  behold  the  waves 
playing  gently  and  smoothly  as  before 
over  the  cold,  watery  grave  of  the  once 
proud  ship  and  we  hasten  away  from 
the  scene  of  our  triumph. 

There  is  no  need  of  our  going  to  the 
help  of  the  enemy's  crew  struggling  in 
the  sea,  for  already  their  own  torpedo 
boats  are  hurrying  to  the  succor  of  their 
comrades,  and  for  us  there  is  further 
work  to  be  done. 

Imagine  the  enthusiasm  our  dear 
fallen  comrade,  Weddingen,  and  his 
3? 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

crew  must  have  felt  as  the  loud  report 
of  their  last  torpedo  announced  the 
destruction  of  their  third  English 
armed  cruiser! 


38 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 


IV 


MOBILIZATION  AND  THE  BEGINNING  OF 
THE  COMMERCIAL  WAR 

AFTER  long  and  agitated  waiting, 
we  received  [in  the  last  days  of 
July,  1914,  the  command  to  mobilize. 
Joyful  expectation  was  visible  on  every 
face,  and  the  only  fear  that  prevailed 
was  that  those  of  us  who  were  awaiting 
our  orders  on  land  might  be  too  late 
to  take  part  in  the  naval  battle  we  were 
all  looking  forward  to  so  eagerly. 

A  few  years  ago,  one  of  the  Lords  of 
the  English  Admiralty  had  predicted 
that  in  the  first  naval  battle  fought 
between  Germany  and  England,  the 
German  fleet  would  be  entirely  anni- 
hilated. We  naturally  only  smiled  in 
derision  at  these  boastful  words.  The 
39 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

English  newspapers,  besides,  had  for 
many  years  announced  that  whenever 
German  officers  met  together  they 
drank  a  toast  "To  the  Day."  Al- 
though of  course  this  was  untrue,  yet 
we  were  all  burning  to  prove  in  battle 
what  our  great  Navy  had  learned  in 
long,  hard-working  years  of  peace. 

A  mighty  engagement  at  sea  seemed 
to  us  imminent  during  these  first  days 
of  war,  and  we  all  longed  to  be  in  it. 
I  was,  however,  at  the  moment,  among 
those  unfortunates  who  were  strapped 
down  to  a  desk  in  the  Admiralty,  and 
with  envy  I  beheld  my  comrades 
rushing  to  active  service,  for  I  had 
always  hoped  to  lead  my  old  beloved 
U-boat  victoriously  against  the  enemy. 
We  had  all  placed  strong  hopes  in  the 
part  our  submarines  would  eventually 
play  in  a  great  crisis,  but  we  never 
4o 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

dreamed  that  they  would  so  success- 
fully take  the  first  r&le  as  our  most 
effective  weapon  in  naval  warfare. 

With  a  happiness  that  can  hardly 
be  described,  I  suddenly  received  the 
order  to  take  over  the  command  of  a 
fine,  new  U-boat  which  had  just  been 
built  at  Kiel.  Never  before  was  a  pen 
more  quickly  thrown  aside  and  a  desk 
closed  than  when  I  handed  over  my 
duties  in  the  Admiralty  to  my  suc- 
cessor, and  shortly  afterwards  I  took 
possession  of  my  new,  splendid  boat, 
to  which  I  was  going  to  confide  all  my 
luck  and  all  I  was  humanly  capable 
of  doing. 

I  addressed  my  crew  in  a  short 
speech,  and  told  them  we  could  best 
serve  our  Almighty  War  Lord  in  bring- 
ing this  new  weapon  of  attack,  con- 
fided to  our  care,  to  the  highest  state  of 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

efficiency,  and  my  words  were  greeted 
with  loud  cheers. 

There  was  much  work  to  be  done  in 
putting  the  finishing  touches  to  our 
submarine,  which  had  only  just  come 
off  the  ways.  The  auxiliary  machines 
had  to  be  tested  and  certain  inner 
arrangements  made;  but,  thanks  to  the 
untiring  zeal  of  the  crew  and  to  the 
eager  help  we  received  from  the  Im- 
perial Navy  Yard,  our  task  was  soon 
accomplished.  After  a  few  short  trial 
trips  and  firing  tests,  I  was  able  to 
declare  our  boat  ready  for  sea  and  for 
war,  and  after  everything  had  been 
formally  surveyed  by  the  inspector  we 
left  our  home  port  before  the  middle 
of  August. 

Departing  at  a  high  speed,  we  bade 
farewell  to  the  big  ships  still  at  their 
moorings,  and  we  soon  joined  our  fellow 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

submarines,  who  had  already  in  the 
first  fortnight  of  war,  according  to  an 
announcement  of  the  Admiralty  Staff, 
made  a  dash  as  far  as  the  English  coast; 
and  here  is  the  proud  record  of  what 
they  further  accomplished:  At  the 
beginning  of  September,  1914,  the 
English  cruiser  "Pathfinder"  was  tor- 
pedoed by  Lieutenant-Captain  Hersing, 
who  later  sunk  the  two  ships  of  the 
line,  "Triumph"  and  "Majestic,"  in 
the  Dardanelles  and  was  rewarded  with 
our  highest  order,  Pour  le  Merite. 

This  initial  success  proclaimed  our 
submarines  to  be  our  greatest  weapon 
of  offense  and  their  importance  became 
of  world-wide  renown,  for  we  claim  the 
honor  of  having  fired  the  first  successful 
torpedo  shot  from  a  submarine.  It 
opened  a  new  era  in  maritime  warfare 
and  was  the  answer  to  many  questions, 
43 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

which  had  puzzled  the  men  of  our  pro- 
fession the  whole  world  over.  Above 
all,  we  had  proved  that  a  German 
U-boat,  after  a  long  and  difficult 
voyage,  could  reach  the  enemy's  coast; 
and  after  penetrating  their  line  of 
defense  was  able  to  send  one  of  their 
ships  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  with  one 
well-aimed  torpedo  shot.  The  age  of 
the  submarine  had  truly  begun. 

Other  victories  followed  in  prompt 
succession.  Weddingen's  wonderful 
prowess  off  the  Hoek  of  Holland,  on 
September  22,  1914,  will  never  be 
forgotten.  In  the  space  of  an  hour 
he  sunk  the  three  English  armored 
cruisers,  "Cressy,"  "Hague,"  and 
"Aboukir,"  and  shortly  afterwards  dis- 
patched their  comrade  "Hawke"  to 
keep  them  company  at  the  bottom  of 
the  North  Sea. 

44 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

Let  me  add  to  this  list  the  English 
cruiser  "Hermes"  near  Dover,  the 
"Niger"  off  the  Downs  of  the  English 
coast;  the  Russian  cruiser  "Pallada" 
in  the  Baltic;  and  a  great  number  of 
other  English  torpedo  boats,  torpedo 
boat  destroyers,  as  well  as  auxiliary 
cruisers  and  transports.  All  this  was 
achieved  before  the  end  of  1914.  Un- 
fortunately I  am  not  at  liberty,  for 
obvious  reasons,  to  describe  my  own 
part  in  the  beginning  of  the  War,  but 
hope  to  be  able  to  do  so  after  we 
achieve  a  victorious  peace. 

Our  dear  cousins  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Channel  must  have  been  rather 
disquieted  by  the  loss  of  so  much 
shipping  at  the  hands  of  our  boats  or  of 
our  mines;  and  they  must  have  realized 
that  a  new  method  of  warfare  had 
begun,  for  their  fleet  no  longer  paraded 
45 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

in  the  North  Sea  or  in  any  of  the  waters 
in  the  war  zone.  Their  great,  valuable 
ships  were  withdrawn,  and  the  patrol 
of  their  coast  was  confided  only  to 
smaller  craft  and  to  the  mine-layers,  in 
order  that  their  people  might  sup- 
posedly sleep  in  peace. 

Our  adversary  was  concealed  by  day, 
and  only  ventured  forth  at  night,  con- 
fident that  darkness  would  insure  his 
safety.  This  was  then  the  hour  for  us 
to  lie  in  watch  for  our  prey,  and  no 
more  glorious  clarion  call  could  have 
heralded  in  the  New  Year  than  the 
torpedo  shot,  which,  on  the  New  Year's 
Eve  of  1915,  sent  the  mighty  ship  of  the 
line  "Formidable"  to  the  bottom  of 
the  Channel.  This  was  our  first  tri- 
umphant victory,  which  showed  that 
not  even  darkness  could  circumvent 
our  plans,  and  which  dispelled  all 
46 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

further  doubts  as  to  our  efficiency.  A 
few  days  after  the  sinking  of  the 
"Formidable"  a  piece  of  one  of  the  row 
boats  was  washed  ashore  at  Zeebrugge, 
and  now  adorns  our  Sea  Museum  as  the 
only  reminder  left  of  the  great  ship. 

We  stood  at  last  on  the  same  footing 
as  our  dear  old  sister,  the  torpedo  boat, 
to  whom  we  in  reality  owed  our  present 
development,  and  from  now  on,  in 
proud  independence,  we  were  justified  , 
in  considering  ourselves  a  separate 
branch  of  the  Navy. 

Now  that  England  felt  obliged  to 
withhold  the  activities  of  her  fleet,  she 
instigated  against  us  the  commercial 
blockade  and  hunger-war;  she  obliged 
neutrals  to  follow  a  prescribed  route; 
and,  by  subjecting  their  vessels  to 
search,  she  prevented  them  from  selling 
us  any  of  their  wares.  In  this  manner, 
47 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

she  sought  to  redeem  herself  from  the 
paralysis  we  had  brought  on  her  fleet, 
and  her  unscrupulous  treatment  of 
the  right  of  nations  and  her  interpreta- 
tion of  the  so-called  "freedom  of  the 
seas"  are  only  too  well  known. 

We  retaliated  on  February  4,  1915, 
by  prescribing  a  certain  danger  zone, 
which  extended  around  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  and  along  the  north  coast 
of  France.  By  this  interdict,  public 
opinion  was  enlightened  as  to  the  part 
our  U-boats  were  going  to  perform  in 
this  new  commercial  warfare,  a  part, 
I  must  admit,  that  few  people  had 
anticipated  before  the  commencement 
of  hostilities.  Of  course,  new  demands 
were  to  be  made  upon  us;  we  should 
have  to  make  long  undersea  trips,  and 
remain  for  some  time  in  the  enemy's 
waters,  after  which  we  should  have  to 
48 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

return  unperceived.  The  English 
called  it  German  bluff,  but  their  tone 
soon  changed  after  we  had  made  our 
first  raid  in  the  heart  of  the  Irish 
Channel,  and  few  of  them  now  ventured 
abroad  except  when  forced  by  the  most 
imperative  obligations. 

At  the  end  of  October,  1914,  the  first 
English  steamer  "Glitra"  was  sunk 
off  the  Norwegian  coast.  It  carried  a 
cargo  of  sewing  machines,  whisky,  and 
steel  from  Leith.  The  captain  was 
wise  enough  to  stop  at  the  first  signal 
of  the  commander  of  the  U-boat,  and 
he  thereby  saved  the  lives  of  his  crew, 
who  escaped  with  their  belongings 
after  the  steamer  was  peacefully  sunk. 
If  others  later  had  likewise  followed 
his  example,  innocent  passengers  and 
crew  would  not  have  been  drowned; 
and  after  all,  people  are  fond  of  their 
49 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

own  lives;  but  these  English  captains 
were  following  the  orders  of  their  Gov- 
ernment to  save  their  ships  through 
flight.  The  English  authorities  even 
went  so  far  as  to  inaugurate  a  sharp- 
shooting  system  at  sea  by  offering  a 
reward  to  any  captain  who  rammed  or 
destroyed  a  German  submarine,  al- 
though the  latter  could  only  obey  this 
command  at  the  risk  of  their  lives;  but 
what  cared  the  rulers  in  England  for 
the  existence  of  men  belonging  to  the 
lower  classes  of  the  Nation?  They  of- 
fered tempting  rewards  for  these  ex- 
ploits in  the  shape  of  gold  watches, 
and  bribed  the  captains  of  the  mer- 
chant marine  with  the  promise  of  be- 
ing raised  to  the  rank  of  officers  in  the 
Reserve.  Therefore,  the  British  news- 
papers were  filled  with  the  account  of 
the  destruction  of  German  U-boats, 
5o 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

and  of  the  generous  rewards  given  for 
these  fine  deeds.  It  was  jolly  for  us  on 
our  return  to  port  to  read  the  record 
of  our  own  doom,  and  scarcely  would 
there  be  a  submarine  afloat  if  these 
records  had  been  true. 

I  should  like  to  tell  a  short  story  in 
connection  with  these  assertions  of 
English  prowess.  One  of  their  small 
steamers  had  actually  contrived  in 
misty  weather  to  ram  the  turret  of  one 
of  our  submarines  while  it  was  in  the 
act  of  submerging.  The  English  cap- 
tain was  loudly  praised  in  all  the  news- 
papers and  received  the  promised 
rewards  for  having  sunk,  as  he  declared, 
a  German  U-boat;  he  had  distinctly 
felt,  he  said,  the  shock  of  the  collision. 
His  statement  was  certainly  accurate, 
for  the  submarine  was  also  conscious 
of  the  shock,  but  it  was  fortunately 
5i 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

followed  with  no  evil  results,  and  our 
commander  had  the  joyful  surprise, 
shortly  afterwards,  when  he  emerged, 
to  find  the  blade  of  the  foe's  propeller 
stuck  in  the  wall  of  the  turret,  whose 
excellent  material  had  preserved  it 
from  serious  injury.  We  happily  hope 
that  the  German  Empire  will  never 
run  so  short  of  bronze  that  it  will  be 
obliged  to  appropriate,  for  the  melting 
pot,  this  fine  propeller  blade,  which 
is  one  of  the  many  interesting  trophies 
preserved  in  our  Submarine  Museum. 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 


OUR  OWN  PART  IN  THE  COMMERCIAL 

WAR  AND   OUR  FIRST  CAPTURED 

STEAMER 

AS  we  have  said  above,  our  war 
against  the  merchant  marine  of 
the  Allied  Nations  began  in  February, 
1915,  throughout  the  war  zone  estab- 
lished around  the  English  and  French 
coasts.  Day  after  day,  the  number 
increased  of  steamers  and  sail  boats 
that  we  had  sunk,  and  commercial 
relations  between  all  countries  were 
seriously  menaced.  The  English  were 
forced  to  believe  in  our  threats  and 
even  the  shipping  trade  of  the  neutrals 
had  greatly  diminished.  The  mighty 
British  fleet  no  longer  dared  to  patrol 
the  seas,  and  the  merchantmen  were 
53 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

told  to  look  out  for  themselves  and 
were  even  armed  for  the  purpose. 

While  the  winter  lasted,  there  was 
not  much  for  us  to  do,  and  we  awaited 
fine  weather  with  lively  impatience. 
During  this  period,  our  victorious  armies 
had  occupied  Belgium  and  Serbia,  and 
conquered  the  Russian  girdle  of  forti- 
fications. The  subsequent  participa- 
tion of  Italy  produced  but  little  im- 
pression on  the  fortunate  current  of 
events,  whereas  Turkey's  entrance  at 
our  side  in  the  war,  opened  a  new  field 
of  operation  for  our  U-boats  in  the 
Mediterranean. 

At  last,  I,  myself,  was  ordered  to 
prepare  for  a  long  voyage,  which  I 
welcomed  most  joyfully  after  several 
months  of  comparative  inaction.  We 
were  to  remain  in  the  enemy's  waters 
for  several  weeks,  which,  of  course, 
54 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

involved  the  most  elaborate  prepara- 
tions. Every  portion  of  the  boat  was 
again  minutely  inspected,  every  ma- 
chine repaired  and  thoroughly  tested. 
Like  a  well-groomed  horse  we  must 
be  in  perfect  condition  for  the  coming 
race.  Each  man  in  the  crew  holds  a 
responsible  position  and  knows  that 
the  slightest  neglect  endangers  the 
welfare  of  the  whole  boat.  The  com- 
mander must  be  certain  that  every- 
thing is  completed  according  to  the 
highest  standard.  The  boat  is  fre- 
quently submerged  and  performs  vari- 
ous exercises  underseas,  while  it  is  still 
safe  in  the  friendly  waters  off  our  own 
coast. 

We    are    always    abundantly    pro- 
visioned; for  the  thirty  men  must  be 
given  the  most  nourishing  food  to  be 
fit  for  their  arduous  tasks.     I  have 
55 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

often  laughed  to  see  the  quantity  of 
provisions  placed  on  deck,  —  for  the 
dealers,  of  course,  are  never  allowed  to 
penetrate  the  inner  shrine  of  the  boat, 
—  and  yet  we  have  often  returned  from 
a  long  cruise  because  our  food  was  com- 
ing to  an  end.  Every  available  corner 
and  space  is  filled  with  provisions.  The 
cook  —  a  sailor  specially  trained  for 
the  job  —  must  hunt  below  in  every 
conceivable  place  for  his  vegetables 
and  meats.  The  latter  are  stored  in  the 
coolest  quarters,  next  to  the  munitions. 
The  sausages  are  put  close  to  the  red 
grenades,  the  butter  lies  beneath  one 
of  the  sailor's  bunks,  and  the  salt  and 
spice  have  been  known  to  stray  into 
the  commander's  cabin,  below  his 
berth. 

When  everything  is  in  readiness,  the 
crew  is  given  a  short  leave  on  land,  to 
56 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

go  and  take  the  much  coveted  hot  bath. 
This  is  the  most  important  ceremony 
before  and  after  a  cruise,  especially 
when  the  men  return,  for  when  they 
have  remained  unwashed  for  weeks, 
soaked  with  machine  oil,  and  saturated 
with  salt  spray,  their  first  thought  is  — 
a  hot  bath.  At  sea,  we  must  be  very 
sparing  of  our  fresh-water  supply,  and 
its  use  for  washing  must  be  carefully 
restricted. 

The  commander  usually  spends  the 
eve  of  his  departure  in  the  circle  of  his 
comrades,  but  it  is  a  solemn  moment 
for  him  as  soon  as  he  sails  from  his 
native  shore.  He  becomes  responsible 
for  every  action  which  is  taken,  and 
for  many  weeks  no  orders  reach  him 
from  his  superiors.  He  is  unable  to 
ask  any  one's  advice,  or  to  consult 
with  his  inferiors,  and  he  stands  alone 
57 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

in  the  solitude  of  his  higher  rank.  Even 
the  common  sailor  is  conscious  of  the 
seriousness  of  the  task  ahead  and  of 
the  adventures  which  may  occur  below 
seas.  No  loud  farewells,  no  jolly  hand, 
no  beckoning  girls  are  there  to  bid  us 
Godspeed.  Quietly  and  silently  do  we 
take  our  departure.  Neither  wife  nor 
child,  nor  our  nearest  and  dearest, 
know  whither  we  go,  if  we  remain  in 
home  waters,  or  if  we  go  forth  to 
encounter  the  foe.  We  can  bid  no  one 
farewell.  It  is  through  the  absence  of 
news  that  they  know  that  we  have  gone, 
and  no  one  is  aware,  except  the  special 
high  officer  in  this  department  of  the 
Admiralty  who  gives  the  commander 
his  orders,  on  what  errand  we  are  bound 
or  when  we  shall  return,  for  the  slightest 
indiscretion  might  forfeit  the  success  of 
our  mission. 

58 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

Before  dawn,  on  the  day  of  our 
departure,  the  last  pieces  of  equipment 
and  of  armament  are  put  on  board,  and 
the  machinery  is  once  more  tested; 
then,  at  the  appointed  hour,  the  chief 
engineer  informs  the  commander  that 
everything  is  ready.  A  shrill  whistle 
bids  the  crew  cast  loose  the  moorings, 
and  at  the  sound  of  the  signal  bell  the 
boat  begins  to  move.  As  we  glide 
rapidly  out  of  port,  we  exchange  by 
mutual  signs  a  few  last  greetings  with 
our  less  favored  comrades  on  the  decks 
of  the  ships  we  leave  behind,  who  no 
doubt  also  long  to  go  forth  and  meet 
the  enemy. 

The  land  begins  to  disappear  in  the 
distance,  and  as  we  gaze  at  the  bobbing 
buoys  that  vanish  in  our  wake,  we  hope 
that  after  a  successful  journey  they 
will  again  be  our  guides  as  we  return  to 

59 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

our  dear  German  homes.  After  gliding 
along  smoothly  at  first,  we  soon  feel 
the  boat  tossing  among  the  bigger 
waves;  but  we  laugh,  as  they  heave 
and  dip  around  us,  for  we  know  every- 
thing is  shipshape  on  board,  and  that 
they  can  do  us  no  harm.  The  wild 
seas  are  bearing  us  onward  towards 
the  hated  foe,  and  after  all  —  in  the 
end  they  lull  so  peacefully  to  sleep  the 
sailor  in  his  eternal  rest. 

In  this  manner,  on  a  fine  March 
morning,  we  steered  our  course  to  the 
English  coast,  to  take  an  active  part 
in  the  commercial  war.  Gently  the 
waves  splashed  around  the  prow  and 
glided  over  the  lower  deck.  Our  duty 
was  to  examine  every  merchantman  we 
met  with  the  object  of  destroying  those 
of  the  enemy.  The  essential  thing  was 
to  ascertain  the  nationality  of  the 
60 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

ships  we  stopped.  On  the  following 
morning,  we  were  given  several  oppor- 
tunities to  fulfill  our  task. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  English 
merchantmen  were  ordered  by  their 
Government  to  fly  a  neutral  flag,  so  as 
to  avoid  being  captured  by  our  war- 
ships. We  all  remember  how,  on  one 
of  her  earlier  trips  through  the  war 
zone,  the  gigantic  "Lusitania"  received 
a  wireless  message  to  conceal  the  Union 
Jack  and  to  fly  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
of  the  United  States,  but  destiny  after 
all  overtook  her  at  a  later  date. 

All  of  us  U-boat  commanders  were 
told  not  to  trust  to  the  nationality  of 
any  flag  we  saw,  and  to  stop  every 
steamer  on  our  path  and  to  examine 
her  papers  thoroughly.  Even  these 
might  be  falsified,  and  we  must  there- 
fore judge  for  ourselves,  according  to 
61 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

the  appearance  of  the  crew  and  the 
way  in  which  the  ship  was  built, 
whether  she  were  in  reality  a  neutral. 
Of  course  many  neutrals  had  to  suffer 
from  the  deceptions  practiced  by  the 
English,  and  although  their  colors  were 
painted  on  their  sides  and  they  were 
lighted  at  night  by  electricity,  yet  this 
device  could  also  be  copied.  Therefore, 
we  were  obliged  to  detain  and  examine 
all  the  ships  we  encountered,  greatly  to 
the  inconvenience  of  the  innocent  ones. 
I  will  describe  the  manner  in  which 
a  warship  undertakes  the  search  of  a 
merchantman:  Through  flag  signals  the 
merchantman  is  bidden  to  stop  im- 
mediately; if  he  does  not  obey,  the 
warship  makes  his  orders  more  impera- 
tive by  firing  blank  shot  as  a  warning. 
If  then  the  merchantman  tries  to 
escape,  the  warship  is  justified  in  hitting 
62 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

the  runaway.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 
steamer  or  sailboat  obeys  the  summons, 
then  the  warship  puts  out  a  boat  with 
an  armed  prize  crew  and  an  officer  to 
look  over  the  ship's  papers.  These 
consist  in  certificates  of  nationality,  of 
the  sailing  port,  and  port  of  destination, 
and  they  contain  a  bill  of  lading  as  to 
the  nature  of  the  cargo,  also  the  names 
of  the  crew  and  a  passenger  list  if  it  is 
a  passenger  steamer.  If  the  ship  is  a 
neutral  and  her  papers  are  satisfactory, 
she  is  allowed  to  proceed,  whereas  an 
enemy's  ship  is  either  captured  or  sunk. 
If  a  neutral  ship  carries  contraband  of 
war,  this  is  either  confiscated  or  de- 
stroyed, but  if  it  exceeds  half  the  total 
cargo,  then  this  ship  is  also  condemned. 
It  is  nearly  impossible  for  a  sub- 
marine to  send  a  prize  crew  on  board 
a  big  ship,  therefore  neutral  States 
63 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

have  given  their  captains  the  order  to 
go  in  a  ship's  boat  and  deliver  their 
papers  themselves  on  board  the  sub- 
marine; but  they  often  annoyed  us  by 
a  long  parley  and  delay,  and  it  was 
always  with  a  feeling  of  disappointment 
that  we  were  obliged  to  leave  inactive 
our  cannons  and  torpedoes,  the  crew 
sadly  exclaiming,  "After  all,  they  were 
only  neutrals!" 

One  sunny  afternoon,  we  were  in  the 
act  of  examining  the  papers  of  a  Dutch 
steamer  that  we  had  stopped  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Meuse  Lightship, 
when  we  perceived  on  the  horizon  an- 
other steamer  coming  rapidly  towards 
us,  and  we  judged  by  its  outline  that 
it  was  of  English  construction.  The 
steamer  we  were  examining  proved  to 
be  unobjectionable  in  every  respect, 
and  sailing  only  between  neutral  ports, 
64 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

so  we  dismissed  it,  and  just  as  it  was 
departing,  the  English  steamer,  evi- 
dently apprehending  our  presence, 
turned  about  in  great  haste  in  hope  to 
escape  from  us,  and  steered  with  full 
steam  ahead  towards  the  English  shores, 
to  seek  the  protection  of  the  ships  on 
the  watch  patroling  the  English  coast. 

The  English  captain  well  knew  what 
fate  awaited  him  if  he  fell  into  the 
hands  of  a  wicked  German  U-boat. 
Mighty  clouds  of  smoke  rose  from  her 
funnels,  giving  evidence  of  the  active 
endeavors  of  the  stokers  in  the  boiler- 
room  to  bring  the  engines  up  to  their 
highest  speed,  and  before  we  had  time 
to  give  the  signal  to  stop,  the  steamer 
was  in  flight. 

Meanwhile  we  had  also  put  on  all 
steam  in  pursuit,  and  drove  our  engines 
to  their  utmost  capacity.  The  English 
65 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

ship  was  going  at  a  great  pace,  and  we 
had  many  knots  to  cover  before  we 
could  catch  up  with  her  to  impose  our 
commands,  for  she  paid  no  heed  to  the 
international  flag-signal  we  had  hoisted 
— "  Stop  at  once  or  we  fire ! " —  and  she 
was  striving  her  uttermost  to  reach  a 
zone  of  safety.  Our  prow  plunged  into 
the  surging  seas,  and  showered  boat 
and  crew  alike  with  silvery,  sparkling 
foam.  The  engines  were  being  urged 
to  their  greatest  power,  and  the  whir  of 
the  propeller  proved  that  below,  at  the 
motor  valves,  each  man  was  doing  his 
very  best.  Anxiously,  we  measured  the 
distance  that  still  separated  us  from 
our  prey.  Was  it  diminishing?  Or 
would  they  get  away  from  us  before 
our  guns  could  take  effect?  Joyfully 
we  saw  the  interval  lessening  between 
us,  and  before  long  our  first  warning 
66 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

shot,  across  her  bow,  raised  a  high, 
threatening  column  of  water.  But 
still  the  Englishman  hoped  to  escape 
from  us,  and  the  thick  smoke  belching 
from  the  funnels  showed  that  the 
stokers  were  shoveling  more  and  more 
coal  into  the  glowing  furnace;  they 
well  knew  what  risk  they  had  to  run. 

Even  after  two  well-aimed  shots  were 
discharged  from  the  steel  mouths  of 
our  cannons,  right  and  left  on  either 
side  of  the  fugitive,  which  must  have 
warned  the  captain  that  the  next  shot 
would  undoubtedly  strike  the  stern, 
he  was  still  resolved  neither  to  stop 
nor  surrender. 

Nothing  now  remained  for  us  but  to 
use  our  last  means  to  enforce  our  will. 
With  a  whistling  sound,  a  shell  flew 
from  the  muzzle  of  our  cannon  and  a 
few  seconds  later  fell  with  a  loud  crash 
67 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

in  a  cloud  of  smoke  on  the  rear  deck  of 
the  steamer.  This  produced  the  de- 
sired effect. 

Immediately  the  steamer  stopped 
and  informed  us  by  three  quick  blasts 
from  the  steam  whistle  (the  inter- 
national signal)  that  the  engines  would 
be  reversed  and  the  ship  stopped.  The 
captain  had  given  up  his  wild  race. 

Huge  white  clouds  from  the  uselessly 
accumulated  steam  rose  from  the  fun- 
nels, and  to  our  signal,  "  Abandon  the 
ship  at  once,"  the  Englishman  replied 
with  a  heavy  heart  by  hoisting  a  white 
and  red  striped  pennon,  the  precon- 
certed international  sign  that  our  order 
had  been  understood  and  was  being 
obeyed. 

This  small  striped  pennon  has  a  deep 
significance:  it  means  that  a  captain 
accepts  this  most  painful  necessity 
68 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

knowing  that  his  dear  old  boat  will  soon 
lie  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea;  truly  a 
difficult  decision  for  the  captain  of  a 
proud  ship  to  make.  The  crew  were  by 
this  time  reconciled  to  their  fate  and, 
as  we  drew  near  to  parley  with  the  cap- 
tain, the  life  boats  were  launched;  the 
men  tossed  in  their  belongings  and, 
jumping  in,  took  their  places  at  the  oars. 
It  need  hardly  be  said  that  we,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  pleased  with  our 
capture.  I  have  often  shaken  hands 
with  the  gunner  who  had  fired  the  last 
deadly  shot,  for  we  waste  no  emotion 
over  our  adversary's  fate.  With  every 
enemy's  ship  sent  to  the  bottom,  one 
hope  of  the  hated  foe  is  annihilated. 
We  simply  pay  off  our  account  against 
their  criminal  wish  to  starve  all  our 
people,  our  women,  and  our  children, 
as  they  are  unable  to  beat  us  in  open 
69 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

fight  with  polished  steel.  Ought  we 
not  therefore  to  rejoice  in  our  justifiable 
satisfaction? 

After  the  crew  had  left  in  two  boats 
the  blazing  hull  of  the  "Leuwarden" 
of  Harwich,  a  well-directed  shot  was 
aimed  at  the  water  line.  Mighty  jets 
of  water  poured  into  the  rear  store- 
room, and  the  heavy  listing  of  the  ship 
showed  that  her  last  hour  had  struck. 
We  beckoned  to  the  captain  to  row  up 
beside  us  and  deliver  his  papers;  he 
stepped  silently  on  board,  and  we 
exchanged  salutes.  As  I  saw  that  the 
two  boat-loads  of  twenty-five  men  were 
lying  off  within  hearing,  on  either  side 
of  us,  I  took  this  opportunity  to  ad- 
monish the  captain  about  his  foolhardy 
attempt  to  escape,  and  how  he  thereby 
had  endangered  the  lives  of  his  crew. 
The  latter,  realizing  the  justice  of  my 
70 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

remarks,  thanked  us  for  having  saved 
them  by  respectfully  lifting  their  caps. 
The  captain  awkwardly  excused  him- 
self by  saying  he  had  simply  hoped  to 
get  away. 

I  then  notified  these  people  whom 
we  had  saved  that  we  would  take  them 
in  tow  to  the  Meuse  Lightship;  at  this, 
the  fine-looking  old  captain  realized  to 
what  useless  dangers  he  had  exposed 
his  men,  and  what  cause  he  had  to  be 
grateful  to  us.  With  tears  in  his  eyes, 
he  seized  my  hand  and  murmured  his 
thanks.  I  willingly  took  his  out- 
stretched hand.  ...  At  that  instant  a 
Dutch  pilot  steamboat,  which  had  been 
attracted  to  the  spot  by  the  sound  of 
firing,  hove  in  sight,  and  I  committed 
the  Englishmen  to  its  care.  We  all 
desired,  before  departing  in  opposite 
directions,  to  witness  the  final  sinking 
71 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

of  the  steamer,  for  apparently  the 
English  also  wanted  to  see  the  last  of 
their  fine  ship,  and  we  awaited  the  great 
moment  in  silence. 

We  had  not  long  to  wait.  The  stern 
of  the  ship  sank  deeper  and  deeper, 
whereas  the  bow  rose  sharply  in  the  air, 
till  at  last  with  a  loud  gurgle  the  whole 
steamer  was  drawn  down,  and  the 
waters  bubbled  and  roared  over  the 
sunken  wreck.  There  was  now  one  less 
fine  ship  of  the  English  merchant  ma- 
rine afloat  on  the  ocean! 

We  had  all  seen  enough,  and  each  one 
went  his  way.  Our  course  was  pointed 
westward  towards  new  endeavors, 
while  the  Dutchman  steered  for  the 
nearest  port  in  order  to  land  the  ship- 
wrecked crew.  I  think  it  was  our 
English  friends  who  waved  a  friendly 
farewell  from  the  deck  of  the  pilot 
72 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

steamboat  in  grateful  recognition  for 
our  having  saved  their  lives,  although 
they  may  not  actually  have  wished  us 
"  aufwiedersehn." 

We  read  in  the  Dutch  papers  a  few 
days  later  an  accurate  description  of 
the  sinking  of  the  "Leuwarden,"  and 
the  English  captain  was  fain  to  ac- 
knowledge how  well  we  had  treated 
him;  every  captain  of  an  English 
steamer  might  have  been  treated  in  like 
manner  had  not  the  English  Govern- 
ment wished  it  otherwise. 


THE  JOURNAL  OF  {i 


VI 

THE  CAPTURE  OF   TWO   PRIZE 
STEAMERS 


next  day  an  opportunity 
-L  offered  itself  to  us  which  opened 
to  submarines  a  new  field  of  activity 
in  the  commercial  war.  It  was  a  gray, 
misty  morning,  the  sea  was  becalmed, 
and  over  the  still  waters  a  heavy  vapor 
hung  low  like  a  veil  before  the  rising 
sun.  But  little  could  be  seen,  and  we 
had  to  keep  a  sharper  lookout  than 
usual  to  avoid  running  unawares  into 
a  hostile  ship,  and  we  also  had  to  be 
ready  for  a  sudden  submersion.  We 
strained  all  the  more  an  attentive  ear 
to  every  sound;  for  it  is  well  known 
that  in  a  fog,  during  a  calm,  we  sailors 
can  perceive  the  most  distant  noise  that 
7* 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

comes  over  the  water.  In  time  of  peace 
fog  horns  and  whistles  give  warning  of 
any  approaching  vessel,  but  in  time  of 
war,  on  the  contrary,  no  vessel  wishes 
to  betray  its  presence.  It  is  essential 
for  us  to;have  two  men  down  below,  at 
listening  posts,  with  their  ears  glued 
to  the  sides  of  the  boat,  to  catch  the 
throbbing  of  a  propeller,  or  the  rush  of 
waves  dashing  against  the  prow  of  a 
ship,  or  any  suspicious  vibrations,  for 
these  noises  are  easily  discernible  under 
sea,  water  being  an  excellent  sound 
conductor. 

On  this  March  morning  we  were  all 
keenly  intent  on  the  approach  of  some 
ship;  many  times  already  as  we  stood 
on  the  bridge  we  had  been  deceived 
by  some  unreal  vision  or  some  delusive 
sound;  our  overstrained  nerves  trans- 
formed our  too  lively  fancy  into  seem- 
75 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

ing  reality;  and  in  a  thick  fog  objects 
are  strangely  magnified  and  distorted: 
a  floating  board  may  assume  the  shape 
of  a  boat,  or  a  motor  launch  be  taken 
for  a  steamer. 

I  remember  a  little  story  about  a 
man-of-war  seeking  to  enter  a  harbor  in 
a  heavy  fog;  every  one  on  board  was 
looking  in  vain  for  a  buoy  to  indicate 
the  channel  when  the  captain  himself 
called  out,  "It  is  for  me  then  to  point 
out  the  buoy;  there  it  is!"  but  as  they 
drew  near,  the  buoy  floating  on  the 
water  spread  out  a  pair  of  wings  and 
flew  away  in  the  shape  of  a  gull,  and 
many  a  gull  in  a  fog  may  have  deceived 
other  experienced  seamen. 

But  to  return  to  our  own  adventures 

on  this  misty  morning;  we  not  only 

saw  gulls  rising  from  the  sea,   and 

boards  floating  on  the  water,  but  we 

76 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

also  encountered  English  mines  adrift, 
which  had  parted  from  their  moorings, 
and  to  these  we  thought  it  safer  to 
give  a  wide  berth.  At  last  the  fog 
lifted,  and  we  discovered  in  the  dis- 
tance, a  few  knots  away,  a  steamer; 
we  immediately  went  in  pursuit. 
Rapidly  it  steamed  ahead,  but  we 
caught  up  with  it,  and  found  it  be- 
longed to  the  Dutch-Batavian  Line, 
but  as  it  was  steering  for  the  Eng- 
lish coast,  towards  the  mouth  of  the 
Thames,  we  took  for  granted  it  carried 
a  contraband  cargo.  We  signaled  for 
it  to  stop,  but  the  steamer  refused  to 
obey  our  command  and  increased  its 
speed.  Having  ascertained  that  we 
could  easily  overtake  it,  we  spared  our 
shot,  which  must  be  carefully  preserved 
for  more  useful  purposes.  After  a 
chase  which  lasted  about  three  quarters 
77 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

of  an  hour  only  a  thousand  meters 
remained  between  us.  The  Dutch 
captain  wisely  gave  up  a  further  at- 
tempt to  escape,  and  awaited  our 
orders.  In  compliance  with  my  signal 
he  sent  his  first  officer  in  a  boat  with 
the  ship's  papers.  While  we  lay  along- 
side the  steamer,  gently  rocking  to  and 
fro,  the  crew  and  passengers  flocked  on 
deck  to  gaze  at  us  with  wondering  eyes, 
and  we  in  return  tried  to  discover  to 
what  nationality  they  belonged. 

On  reading  the  papers  the  officer 
handed  me,  I  saw  the  steamer  was  the 
"Batavian  IV,"  destined  for  London, 
carrying  a  cargo  of  provisions,  which 
is  contraband  of  war.  I  had  to  make 
a  rapid  decision  as  to  the  fate  of  the 
steamer,  and  I  resolved  to  bring  the 
"Batavian"  into  one  of  the  Belgian 
ports  now  in  our  possession.  No 
78  ' 


THE   START:   TAKING   IN    OIL    FROM    HER   TENDER 


THE  CHASE:    FOLLOWING   IN  THE   WAKE  OF  A  DUTCH   STEAMER 


OVERHAULING  HER  PREY:    ROUNDING  THE   BOW   OF  THE 
BATAVIER    IV 


THE   SUMMONS  TO   SURRENDER:   CALLING  UPON  THE  STEAM K 
TO   HEAVE  TO 

VON    FORSTNER'S    SUBMARINE    (U  28 
A  Series  of  Photographs  taken  fron 


PREY   NUMBER   TWO:  APPROACHING  THE  ZAANSTROOM 


ABOUT  TO   BOARD  THE   PRIZE:   THE   PILOT   LEAVING  THE 
TENDER   FOR   THE   STEAMER 


THE   TRIUMPH:    THE   SUBMARINE   LEADING  THE   WAY   THROUGH 
MINE-FIELDS    INTO  ZEEBRUGGE 

IN    ACTION    IN    THE   NORTH    SEA 
the  Deck  of  One  of  her  Victims 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

U-boat  had  ever  attempted  such  a 
feat  before,  but  why  not  try?  Of 
course  we  had  to  cover  a  long  distance 
with  the  imminent  threat  of  being 
overtaken  by  English  warships,  but 
if  we  did  succeed,  it  was  a  very  fine 
catch,  and  after  all,  —  nothing  ven- 
ture, nothing  have.  Besides  the  misty 
weather  was  in  our  favor,  and  it  would 
only  take  a  few  hours  to  reach  the 
protection  of  our  batteries  on  the 
Flemish  coast. 

The  Dutch  officer  was  notified  that 
a  prize  crew  would  be  at  once  sent  on 
board  his  steamer  to  conduct  it  to  the 
port  of  Zeebrugge.  He  opened  won- 
dering eyes,  but  made  no  protest,  for 
he  was  fully  aware  of  our  cannons 
turned  on  his  ship  and  of  the  loaded 
pistols  of  our  crew.  The  crew  and 
passengers  on  board  the  Dutchman 
79 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

were  no  less  astounded  when  our  prize 
command,  consisting  of  one  officer  and 
one  sailor,  climbed  up  on  deck.  I 
could  not  well  dispense,  myself,  with 
more  men,  and  in  case  my  prize  was 
released  by  the  English,  it  would  be 
better  they  had  so  few  prisoners  of  ours 
to  take. 

The  Dutch  captain  raised  several 
objections  at  being  led  away  captive 
in  this  manner;  above  all  he  was  afraid 
of  the  German  mines  strewn  before 
the  entrance  of  Zeebrugge,  but  my 
officer  reassured  him  by  telling  him 
we  should  lead  the  way  and  he  would 
therefore  run  no  risk.  He  finally  had 
to  resign  himself  to  his  fate.  So  we 
proceeded  towards  the  shores  of  Flan- 
ders; we,  in  the  proud  consciousness  of 
a  new  achievement,  and  the  Dutchman 
lamenting  over  the  seizure  of  his  valu- 
80 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

able  cargo.  The  passengers  must  have 
wondered  what  was  in  store  for  them. 
Many  of  the  ladies  were  lightly  clad, 
having  been  roused  in  fright  from  their 
morning  slumbers,  and  their  anxious 
eyes  stared  at  us,  while  we  merrily 
looked  back  at  them. 

Our  officer  on  board  exchanged  con- 
tinual signals  with  us,  and  we  were  soon 
conscious,  with  a  feeling  of  envy,  as 
we  gazed  through  our  field  glasses,  that 
he  was  getting  on  very  friendly  terms 
with  the  fair  sex  on  board  our  prize. 
We  had  feared  at  first  that  he  might 
have  some  disagreeable  experiences, 
but  his  first  message  spelled,  "There 
are  a  great  many  ladies  on  board,"  and 
the  second,  "We  are  having  a  delicious 
breakfast,"  and  the  third,  "The  captain 
speaks  excellent  German,"  so  after  this 
we  were  quite  reassured  concerning  him. 
81 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

An  hour  may  have  elapsed  when  a 
cloud  of  smoke  on  the  eastern  horizon 
announced  the  approach  of  another 
steamer,  and  the  idea  that  we  might 
perhaps  capture  a  second  prize  ship 
was  very  alluring.  The  wisdom  of 
abandoning  for  a  while  our  first  captive 
was  considered  somewhat  doubtful; 
if  we  delayed  it  might  escape  after 
darkness  set  in,  but  when  I  heard  my 
officers  exclaim  "What  a  fine  steamer!" 
I  decided  to  try  for  it.  The  "Ba- 
tavian"  was  ordered  to  proceed  slowly 
on  the  same  course,  and  we  would 
catch  up  with  it  later;  then  turning  my 
attention  to  steamer  No.  2,  I  made 
quickly  in  her  direction  to  intercept 
her  on  her  way  to  England.  After  half 
an  hour's  pursuit  we  signaled  for  her 
to  stop,  and  we  discovered  she  was 
also  Dutch.  The  captain,  seeing  it  was 
82 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

useless  to  try  and  escape,  put  out  a  boat 
and  came  on  board  with  the  ship's 
papers;  he  seemed  thoroughly  dis- 
pleased at  the  meeting,  and  hoped  no 
doubt  by  coming  himself  to  get  away 
more  easily,  but  of  this  expectation  he 
was  to  be  sadly  disabused.  On  dis- 
covering that  he  was  also  carrying  con- 
traband of  war  —  cases  of  eggs  for 
London  —  I  ordered  him  to  follow  us 
to  Zeebrugge.  One  officer  and  a  stoker, 
for  I  could  not  spare  another  sailor, 
accompanied  him  as  our  prize  command 
on  board  his  ship,  the  "Zaanstroom," 
and  after  a  lapse  of  an  hour  and  a  half, 
followed  by  No.  2,  we  caught  up  with 
No.  1. 

The  difficulty  of  my  task  can  be 

easily  imagined,  for  I  was  obliged  to 

make  the  two  steamers  follow  each 

other  at  a  given  interval  and  at  the 

83 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

same  speed ;  like  a  shepherd  dog  herding 
his  flock  I  had  to  cruise  round  my  two 
captives  and  force  them  to  steer  a 
straight  and  even  course,  for  one  tried 
occasionally  to  outdistance  the  other, 
probably  with  the  desire  to  escape  in 
the  foggy  weather,  which  increased  my 
fear  of  not  reaching  the  Flemish  coast 
before  dark. 

But  finally  I  got  the  steamers  into 
line,  and  where  persuasion  might  have 
failed  the  menace  of  my  cannons  was 
doubtless  my  surest  reason  for  success. 

My  second  officer  on  the  "Zaan- 
stroom"  signaled  that  everything  was 
going  to  his  liking  and  that  they  were 
just  sitting  down  to  a  savory  meal  of 
dropped  eggs.  This  was  reassuring 
news,  and  I  could  also  feel  tranquil  on 
his  behalf;  besides  in  a  few  hours  we 
should  be  safely  under  cover  of  our 
84 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

coast  artillery.  We  notified  the  Pilot 
Depot  by  wireless  to  send  us  a  pilot  for 
each  ship,  and  our  messages  having 
been  acknowledged  we  were  certain  of 
being  warmly  welcomed,  and  that 
every  preparation  would  be  made  for 
the  reception  of  our  two  prizes. 

The  closer  we  got  to  the  coast  the 
heavier  the  fog  lay  upon  the  water,  a 
not  unusual  experience  at  sea.  We  had 
to  advance  with  the  greatest  caution; 
our  U-boat  led  the  way  to  confirm 
anew  the  assurance  we  had  given  our 
two  steamers  that  they  were  in  no 
danger  of  mines.  We  had  to  measure 
the  depth  of  water  repeatedly  with  the 
lead,  and  so  doing  we  had  to  stop  very 
often;  otherwise  the  lead  being  dragged 
by  the  current  draws  the  line  to  an 
inaccurate  length.  It  is  but  too  easy 
a  matter  to  run  aground  off  the  coast 
85 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

of  Flanders,  as  submerged  sandbanks 
are  everywhere  to  be  encountered,  and 
this  would  have  been  in  our  present 
case  a  most  unfortunate  occurrence. 
This  continual  stopping  rather  dis- 
turbed the  order  of  our  march,  for 
steamers  are  more  unwieldy  and  less 
accustomed  to  rapid  maneuvering  than 
war  vessels.  Luckily  all  went  well  with 
us,  for  after  a  fine  trip  of  several  hours 
,we  gladly  greeted  our  German  guard- 
ships  lying  off  the  port  of  Zeebrugge, 
"and  the  lighthouse  on  the  mole  beck- 
oned to  us  from  afar  through  the  thin 
afternoon  mist. 

We  quickly  surrendered  our  two 
captive's  to  the  patrol  of  the  port 
authorities,  into  whose  care  and  sur- 
veillance they  were  now  entrusted. 
Our  job  for  the  day  was  over,  and  we 
could  joyfully  hurry  to  our  berth 
86 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

within  the  harbor.  We  passed  along 
the  tremendous  stone  quay  of  the  arti- 
ficial port  of  Zeebrugge;  it  extends 
several  kilometers,  and  was  built  by 
Leopold  II  with  English  money;  it  had 
cost  many,  many  millions,  and  was 
intended  to  serve  quite  another  purpose 
than  its  present  one.  We  could  look 
with  defiance  at  the  mouth  of  our 
German  cannons  that  gaped  over  the 
highest  edge  of  the  jetty  towards  the 
sea,  as  if  awaiting  the  foe. 

Farther  on  up  the  mole,  instead  of 
English  troops  that  the  King  would  so 
gladly  have  sent  over  in  transports  to 
march  through  neutral  Belgium  and 
pay  us  an  uninvited  visit,  stood,  side 
by  side,  our  own  brave  fellows  of  the 
Army  and  of  the  Navy.  Men  from 
every  branch  of  the  service,  in  their 
different  uniforms,  were  visible,  as 
87 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

they  crowded  on  the  pier  to  witness  our 
arrival  with  our  two  prize  boats,  for 
the  news  of  this  unusual  capture  had 
already  spread  far  and  wide,  and  they 
all  wanted  to  satisfy  their  curiosity. 
Their  enthusiasm  would  have  been 
even  greater  had  they  guessed  that 
concealed  within  the  hull  of  our  two 
vessels  an  Easter  feast  of  undreamed-of 
dainties  lay  in  store  for  them.  But 
even  without  this  incentive  a  tremen- 
dous cheer  from  a  thousand  throats 
hailed  our  appearance  as  we  rounded 
the  mole,  and  our  thirty  voices  returned 
as  hearty,  if  not  as  loud,  a  three  times 
repeated  cheer  for  the  garrison  of 
Zeebrugge.  Our  tow  lines  were  caught 
by  the  eager  hands  of  the  sailors,  and 
in  a  jiffy  we  were  lying  securely  along- 
side the  quay,  safe  in  port  to  rest  in 
peace  a  day  or  two  after  a  many  days' 
88 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

cruise  enlivened  by  such  exciting  events. 
Our  friends  of  the  Navy,  whom  we  had 
not  seen  since  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
came  to  visit  us  at  once;  much  gay 
news  was  exchanged  and  also  sad 
regrets  expressed  at  the  loss  of  dear 
fallen  comrades. 

Shortly  afterwards  one  of  the  Dutch 
captains,  escorted  by  two  guards,  asked 
me  to  grant  him  an  interview,  and  I 
was  glad  to  make  his  personal  acquaint- 
ance; we  discussed  over  a  little  glass  of 
port  wine,  which  we  were  both  surely 
entitled  to,  the  incidents  of  the  day, 
and  he  gave  vent  to  his  affliction  at 
being  thus  seized,  by  ejaculating:  "A 
great  steamer  like  mine  to  be  captured 
by  a  little  beast  like  yours!"  I  could 
sympathize  with  his  feelings,  for  he  had 
sustained  a  severe  pecuniary  loss,  and 
he  well  knew  what  would  become  of 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

his  ship  and  cargo  according  to  prize 
law,  but  I  suspected  he  found  some 
consolation  in  having  a  companion  in 
misfortune,  for  the  other  Dutch  captain 
had  to  submit  to  the  same  conditions. 
We  shook  hands  and  parted  excellent 
friends,  knowing  that  each  one  of  us 
had  only  accomplished  his  duty. 

Before  making  my  official  report  I 
inspected  my  two  prizes  that  were 
docked  just  behind  us;  a  chain  parted 
them  from  the  rest  of  the  quay,  with 
sentries  placed  on  guard.  I  gave  the 
preference  of  my  first  visit,  naturally, 
as  a  polite  man  should,  to  the  steamer 
with  so  many  of  the  fair  sex  on  board. 
I  hoped  that  by  appearing  surrounded 
by  my  officers  I  should  dispel  their  fear 
of  the  "German  barbarians."  I  was 
told  the  ladies  belonged  to  a  variety 
troupe  that  was  to  give  a  performance 
90 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

the  next  evening  in  London.  Poor 
London,  to  be  deprived  by  our  fault 
of  an  enjoyable  evening! 

Among  the  other  passengers  were 
Belgians  and  French,  who  had  waited 
six  weeks  in  Holland  for  a  chance  to  get 
across,  and  also  an  American  reporter 
of  the  Hearst  newspaper.  He  had  a 
camera  for  taking  moving  pictures,  and 
we  discovered  later  that  he  had  photo- 
graphed the  whole  occurrence  of  the 
capture  of  the  ship  by  our  submarine. 
A  few  days  later  the  Graphic  of  March 
27,  1915,  published  several  of  his 
pictures,  which  eventually  found  their 
way  to  many  American  papers. 

I  was  ordered  that  evening  to  dine 
with  the  Commanding  Admiral  of 
the  Marine  Corps,  Excellency  von 
Schroder,  and  a  motor  called  for  me 
and  took  me  to  Brugge  where  he 
91 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

resided.  The  peaceful  landscape  and 
the  ploughed  fields  betrayed  but  few 
signs  of  war,  and  I  saw  Belgian  peas- 
ants and  German  soldiers  planting 
together  the  seed  for  the  coming 
harvest. 

While  the  authorities  were  passing 
judgment  on  my  two  prizes  I  had  a 
chance  to  visit  the  surrounding  country. 
The  English  had  destroyed  in  their 
retreat  everything  in  Zeebrugge,  except 
the  new  Palace  Hotel,  the  new  Post 
Office,  and  the  Belgian  Bank.  I  made 
the  most  of  this  short  opportunity  to 
observe  the  doings  of  our  men  in  this 
conquered  land  paid  for  with  German 
blood.  I  was  interested  to  note  how 
our  Marines  had  been  incorporated  in 
every  branch  of  the  Army  service,  and 
how  easily  they  adapted  themselves  to 
this  new  life.  They  served  as  infantry 
92 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

in  the  trenches,  as  artillery  behind  the 
great  coast  guns,  and  also  as  cavalry 
mounted  on  big  Flemish  mares.  They 
had  even  been  transformed  into  car 
conductors  on  the  electric  line  that 
runs  behind  the  dunes  between  Zee- 
brugge  and  Ostend.  In  fact  they  filled 
every  kind  of  position,  and  few  Belgians 
were  to  be  seen.  We  had  created  here 
a  second  German  fatherland  and  home, 
notwithstanding  the  enemy's  reports 
that  we  had  acted  like  Huns  and  bar- 
barians, but  as  neither  the  country  nor 
the  people  were  of  great  interest  to  me 
my  attention  was  centered  on  the  study 
of  our  own  troops. 

Meantime  the  unloading  of  our 
steamers  had  begun  and  I  had  to  super- 
vise it  myself.  As  the  cargoes  were 
composed  of  perishable  foodstuffs  the 
usual  delays  were  overcome,  and 

93 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

hundreds  of  sailors  and  soldiers  were 
ordered  to  unload  the  ships.  Out  of  the 
hold  rose  newly  slaughtered  pigs,  and 
sheep,  and  ducks,  which  were  at  once 
distributed  among  the  various  regi- 
ments. Two  hundred  barrels  of  the 
best  Munich  beer  were  rolled  over  the 
quays,  and  two  barrels  found  their 
way  on  board  our  little  boat,  which  no 
one  could  begrudge  us.  On  the  "Zaan- 
stroom"  there  were  4,400  boxes  of  fresh 
eggs,  each  box  containing  1,800  eggs, 
and  I  was  told  by  an  Army  officer  that 
every  man  of  the  Northern  Army 
received  eight  eggs  for  the  Easter 
festival. 

On  the  following  afternoon  the 
nationality  of  the  crew  and  of  the 
passengers  was  recorded;  a  number  of 
them  were  sent  as  prisoners  of  war  to 
concentration  camps,  and  many  touch- 
94 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

ing  farewells  ensued  between  the  men 
and  the  women  who  were  left  behind. 
The  others  were  taken  on  a  special  train 
under  military  guard  to  the  Dutch 
frontier.  The  German  sailors  on  whom 
this  mission  devolved  looked  very  jolly 
as  they  sat  armed  to  the  teeth  in  the 
railway  carriages,  by  twos,  watching 
over  two  pretty  variety  actresses,  and 
I  think  they  would  willingly  have  pro- 
longed the  journey  farther. 

I  walked  along  the  train  to  say  good- 
bye to  the  passengers,  who  had  so 
unwillingly  made  our  acquaintance, 
and  I  was  warmly  thanked  by  an  old 
American,  to  whom  I  personally  had 
done  a  small  favor,  for  my  courteous 
treatment;  he  spoke  in  the  name  of  all 
the  passengers  who  had  experienced 
also  the  greatest  civility  at  the  hands  of 
the  port  authorities.  I  declined  these 
95 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

words  of  thanks,  for  they  had  only 
received  the  treatment  that  was  their 
proper  due. 

After  the  train  had  left,  the  hour  of 
our  own  departure  had  struck;  we  cast 
off  the  lines  that  had  kept  us  bound  for 
two  such  memorable  days  on  the 
Flemish  coast.  In  passing  by,  I  waved 
a  farewell  to  the  two  Dutch  captains, 
and  away  we  went  —  westward  ho ! 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 
VII 

OFF  THE  COAST  OF  ENGLAND 

OUR  boat  carried  us  speedily  away 
farther  and  farther  towards  the 
west,  and  soon  the  lighthouse  on  the 
mole  and  the  outline  of  the  country  we 
had  conquered  faded  away  in  the  eve- 
ning twilight.  Before  long  we  should 
be  surrounded  by  only  hostile  shores. 

We  first  sighted  the  French  port  of 
Boulogne  where  the  imposing  bronze 
statue  of  Napoleon  I  stands  on  a  mar- 
ble column  fifty-three  meters  high,  with 
eyes  turned  towards  the  English  coast. 
It  was  built  to  commemorate  the 
expedition  planned  by  Napoleon  in 
1803  against  the  sons  of  Albion,  whose 
descendants  have  so  recently  landed  on 
97 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

French  soil,  and  as  they  lie  there 
encamped,  they  may  wonder,  when 
gazing  at  the  statue  of  the  great 
Emperor,  if  he  would  have  welcomed 
them  with  the  same  enthusiasm  with 
which  they  have  been  received  by  the 
present  rulers  of  France. 

On  our  very  first  day  in  the  French 
Channel  we  were  able  to  sink  several 
steamers,  after  the  crews  had  left  in 
their  lifeboats,  and  on  general  lines  a 
similar  picture  was  traced  at  every 
sinking.  We  were  now  granted  our 
first  opportunity  to  steer  a  submarine 
above  and  below  the  waters  of  the 
North  Atlantic.  The  ocean  seemed 
to  rejoice  at  our  coming,  and  revealed 
itself  to  us  in  all  the  glory  of  a  March 
storm.  Only  those  who  have  seen  such 
a  storm  can  realize  its  proud  majesty. 
The  gigantic,  blue-black  waves,  with 


Copyright  by  Underwood  &>  Underwood,  N.Y. 
LIFEBOAT  LEAVING  THE  SINKING  P.  AND  O.  LINER  ARABIA 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

their  shining  crests  lashed  by  the 
west  wind,  came  rushing  onwards  into 
the  open  mouth  of  the  Channel,  and 
the  hemmed-in  waters,  roaring  and 
surging,  dashed  themselves  against  the 
sharp,  rocky  points  of  the  French  coast, 
or  broke  less  violently  but  in  ceaseless 
unrest  on  the  chalk  cliffs  of  England 
which  glimmered  white  in  the  rays  of 
the  sun. 

It  is  a  splendid  sight  to  watch  this 
great  spectacle  from  the  high  deck  of  a 
steamer  as  it  ploughs  its  way  through 
the  foaming  flood,  or  to  be  borne  aloft 
on  the  top  of  the  waves  with  a  ship 
under  full  sail,  but  it  is  still  more  won- 
derful to  behold  Nature's  great  display 
from  the  half  submerged  conning-tower 
of  a  U-boat,  and  to  dive  through  the 
mountainous  breakers  until  they  close 
gurgling  over  our  heads  and  hide  us 
99 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

from  all  curious  glances.  Our  little 
nutshell,  in  perpetual  motion,  is  drawn 
down  into  the  deep  valleys  of  the  ocean 
waves,  or  tossed  upwards  on  the  comb 
of  the  following  breaker.  We  are 
soaked  to  the  skin,  and  the  spray  covers 
us  like  a  silvery  veil;  our  boat  as  well 
as  ourselves  is  daubed  with  a  salt  crust, 
our  eyes  smart  and  our  lips  have  a  briny 
tang,  but  to  us  sailors  it's  a  joy  to  be 
the  sport  of  the  wild  waves,  and  even 
those  few  unfortunates  who  always 
suffer  from  sea-sickness  never  lose 
their  love  of  the  sea. 

We  were  thus,  in  the  midst  of  a  strong 
southwesterly  gale,  lying  in  wait  for 
our  prey  at  the  entrance  of  the  English 
Channel,  but  no  ship  was  to  be  seen; 
most  of  them  took  the  northerly  course 
beyond  the  war  zone,  around  the  Shet- 
land Islands,  and  it  was  not  until  the 
100 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

next  morning,  north  of  the  Scilly  Isles, 
in  the  Bristol  Channel,  that  we  caught 
sight  behind  us  of  a  big  steamer,  run- 
ning before  the  wind,  like  ourselves. 
The  wind  had  somewhat  fallen  and  the 
March  sun  was  shining  bright  and 
warm;  the  steamer  was  heading  for 
Cardiff,  and  we  judged  by  her  course 
that  she  had  sailed  from  some  port  in 
South  America. 

Turning  about  and  breasting  the 
waves  we  faced  the  oncoming  steamer 
and  signaled  to  her  to  stop;  but  hardly 
had  she  espied  us  than  she  also 
turned  about  in  the  hope  to  escape. 
She  showed  no  flag  to  indicate  her 
nationality,  so  surely  we  had  sighted  an 
English  vessel.  Even  after  we  had  fired 
a  warning  shot,  she  tried  by  rapid  and 
tortuous  curves  to  return  to  her  former 
course,  and  endeavor  thereby  to  reach 

101 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

her  home  port.  Meantime  she  sent  up 
rockets  as  signals  of  distress  in  quick 
succession,  to  draw  the  attention  of 
British  patrol  ships  that  must  be 
hovering  in  the  neighborhood. 

This  obliged  us  to  fire  a  decisive  shot, 
and  with  a  loud  report  our  first  shell 
struck  the  ship  close  to  the  captain's 
bridge.  Instead  of  resigning  himself  to 
his  fate,  the  Englishman  sent  up  more 
signals  and  hoisted  the  British  flag. 
This  showed  us  he  was  game,  and  the 
fight  began  in  dead  earnest.  All  honor 
to  the  pluck  of  these  English  captains! 
—  but  how  reckless  to  expose  in  this 
manner  the  lives  of  their  passengers  and 
crew,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  present 
instance. 

Circling  around  us  he  tried  to  ram  us 
with  his  prow,  and  we  naturally  avoided 
him  by  also  turning  in  the  same 
1 02 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

direction.  Every  time  he  veered  about 
he  offered  us  his  broadside  for  a  shot; 
with  well-directed  aim  we  took  ad- 
vantage of  this  target,  and  our  success- 
ful fire  gave  him  full  proof  of  the  skill  of 
our  gunners.  The  latter  had  a  hard 
time  of  it;  the  high  seas  poured  over  the 
low  deck,  and  they  continually  stood 
up  to  their  necks  in  the  cold  salt  water. 
They  were  often  dragged  off  the  deck 
by  the  great  receding  waves,  but  as 
they  were  tied  by  strong  ropes  to  the 
cannons  we  were  able  to  pull  them  up 
again,  and  fortunately  no  lives  were 
lost. 

On  seeing  our  gunners  struggling  in 
the  seas,  our  foe  hoped  to  make  good 
his  escape,  but  with  each  telling  shot 
our  own  fighting  blood  was  aroused 
and  the  wild  chase  continued.  A  well- 
aimed  shell  tore  off  the  English  flag- 
io3 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

staff  at  the  stern,  but  the  Union  Jack 
was  quickly  hoisted  again  on  the  fore- 
top.  This  was  also  shot  down,  and  a 
third  time  the  flag  flew  from  a  line  of 
the  yard  of  the  foretop,  but  the  flag 
had  been  raised  too  hastily  and  it  hung 
reversed,  with  the  Union  Jack  upside 
down,  and  in  this  manner  it  continued 
to  fly  until  it  sank  with  the  brave  ship. 
The  fight  had  lasted  four  hours  with- 
out our  being  able  to  deliver  the  death 
stroke.  Several  fires  had  started  on  the 
steamer,  but  the  crew  had  been  able 
to  keep  them  under  control;  big  holes 
gaped  open  in  the  ship's  side,  but  there 
were  none  as  yet  below  the  water  line, 
and  the  pumps  still  sufficed  to  expel 
the  water.  It  often  occurred  that  in 
the  act  of  firing  the  waves  choked 
our  cannons,  and  the  shot  went  hissing 
through  tremendous  sheets  of  water, 
io4 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

while  we  were  blinded  by  a  deluge  of 
foam.     Of  course  we   were  all  wet, 
through  and  through,  but  that  was  of 
no   importance,   for  we  had  already 
been  wet  for  days. 

It  was  now  essential  for  us  to  put  an 
end  to  this  deadly  combat,  for  English 
torpedo-boat  destroyers  were  hurrying 
on  to  the  calls  of  distress  of  the  steamer. 
Big  clouds  of  smoke  against  the  sky 
showed  they  were  coming  towards  us 
under  full  steam.  The  ship  was  by  this 
time  listing  so  heavily  that  it  was 
evident  we  need  waste  no  more  of  our 
ammunition,  and  besides  the  appear- 
ance of  another  big  steamer  on  the 
southern  horizon  was  an  enticing  in- 
ducement to  quit  the  battle  scene  and 
seek  another  victim.  We  cast  a  last 
look  on  our  courageous  adversary  who 
was  gradually  sinking,  and  I  must  add 
io5 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

it  was  the  first  and  last  prey  whose 
end  we  did  not  have  the  satisfaction 
to  witness.  We  had  been  truly  im- 
pressed by  the  captain's  brave  endur- 
ance, notwithstanding  his  lack  of  wis- 
dom, and  we  knew  that  the  men-of-war 
were  coming  to  his  rescue.  We  read 
in  the  papers,  on  our  return  to  a 
German  port,  that  the  "Vosges"  had 
sunk  soon  after  we  had  departed,  and 
what  remained  of  the  passengers  and 
crew  were  picked  up  by  the  English 
ships.  The  captain  was  rewarded  for 
his  temerity  by  being  raised  to  the 
rank  of  Reserve  officer,  and  the  crew 
were  given  sums  of  money;  but  all  the 
other  officers  had  perished,  as  well  as 
several  sailors  and  a  few  passengers, 
who  had  been  forced  to  help  the  stokers 
in  order  to  increase  the  speed  of  the 
flying  steamer. 

106 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

We  hurried  away,  therefore,  in  the 
direction  of  the  other  ship,  and  as  we 
approached  we   soon   recognized   the 
Spanish  colors  flying  from  her  flagstaff 
and  painted  on  her  sides.    The  captain 
willingly  stopped  at  our  bidding  and 
dispatched  an  officer  to  us  bearing  the 
ship's  papers.    The  stormy  waves  had 
somewhat  subsided,  and  although  the 
occupants  of  the  boat  got  very  wet, 
yet  they  were  able,  without  danger,  to 
come  alongside  our  submarine.    There 
was  no  contraband  on  board  the  Span- 
ish steamer,  and  before  dismissing  the 
officer  I  admonished  him  always  to  stop 
at  the  first  signal  from  a  U-boat;  he  as- 
sured me  that  since  the  English  were 
constantly  hoisting  the  Spanish  flag  he 
had  lost  all  desire  to  navigate  again  in 
the  dangerous  waters  of  the  war  zone. 

Much  relieved  at  getting  away  so  easily 
107 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

he  went  on  board  his  own  steamer, 
which  resumed  its  voyage  towards 
the  lovely  city  of  Santander  on  the 
Spanish  coast. 

I  read  an  account  later  of  our  en- 
counter with  the  "Agustina"  in  a 
number  of  the  Matin  of  April  1,  1915. 
It  was  entitled  "Toujours  FU"  and 
spoke  of  our  undesirable  presence  in 
French  waters;  a  following  number  did 
us  the  honor  to  represent  a  large  picture 
of  our  boat  with  the  officers  standing 
on  the  bridge,  taken  probably  by  a 
passenger  on  board  the  Spanish  vessel. 
An  arrow  pointed  to  us  with  the  in- 
scription, "  Voila  V equipage  de  bandits." 
The  English  usually  refer  to  us  as  "the 
pirates,"  and  in  their  rage  describe  our 
activities  as  those  of  the  "German 
submarine  pest."  We  are  accustomed 
to  these  flattering  allusions,  and  it 
1 08 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

amused  me  to  preserve  and  frame  our 
picture  from  the  Matin. 

In  the  next  few  days  we  stopped  and 
searched  several  neutral  steamers,  and 
sank  many  English  ones.  The  captains 
were  occasionally  stubborn  and  refused 
to  obey  our  signals,  so  a  few  accidents 
occurred;  in  one  case,  for  instance,  a 
stray  shot  struck  some  passengers  in 
a  lifeboat,  which  collapsed;  but  as  a 
rule  passengers  and  crews  were  picked 
up  by  the  many  sailboats  and  fishing 
boats  which  circulate  in  the  Irish  Sea 
and  in  St.  George's  Channel,  and  it 
was  we  who  generally  summoned  these 
fishermen  to  go  to  the  rescue  of  their 
shipwrecked  countrymen. 

The  method  of  capture  was  always 

the  same,  and  now,  our  ammunition 

being  nearly  exhausted,  we  steered  a 

homeward  course,  with  the  hope  of 

109 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

securing  a  few  more  steamers  on  the 
way.  We  were  again  favored  by  good 
luck,  for  at  the  entrance  of  the  English 
Channel  we  ran  across  a  large  steamer, 
coming  from  America  and  heading  for 
a  French  port,  heavily  laden  with  all 
the  fine  things  that  the  Americans  at 
present  so  willingly  export. 

The  chase  began  in  the  usual  fashion 
as  we  followed  closely  in  the  enemy's 
wake.  Although  the  captain  made  an 
effort  to  escape,  yet  he  evidently  felt 
certain  from  the  beginning  that  he 
would  be  unable  to  do  so,  for  he 
immediately  swung  out  the  lifeboats, 
ready  to  be  lowered.  We  were  econo- 
mizing our  ammunition  and  did  not, 
according  to  our  custom,  fire  a  warning 
shot,  but  as  we  drew  near  the  steamer 
we  suddenly  saw  dark,  round  objects 
thrown  overboard.  The  man  at  the 
no 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

helm  beside  me  exclaimed:  "They  are 
throwing  mines,"  but  I  was  not  of  the 
same  opinion.  We  proceeded  quietly  to 
examine  these  suspicious  objects  more 
closely,  and  we  discovered  they  were 
simply  bundles  of  clothes  the  sailors 
were  trying  to  save.  In  pitching  them 
into  the  lifeboats  they  had  missed 
the  mark  and  the  bundles  had  fallen 
into  the  sea.  A  report  had  apparently 
spread  through  the  English  seaports 
that  the  men  had  but  scant  time  to 
save  their  belongings  when  they  were 
sighted  by  one  of  our  submarines,  and 
since  that  time  their  clothes  were 
strapped  together  ready  for  a  sudden 
emergency.  The  steamer  stopped  and 
the  crew  on  this  occasion  took  to  the 
boats  with  a  perfect  discipline  we 
were  little  accustomed  to  witness;  the 
"Flaminian"  was  sent  to  the  bot- 
iii 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

torn  of  the  sea  with  one  of  our  last 
torpedoes. 

The  following  morning,  before  bid- 
ding the  west  coast  of  England  a 
temporary  farewell,  we  made  another 
good  catch.  We  sighted  a  broad- 
bottomed,  four-masted  steamer,  also 
coming  from  America,  laden  down,  as 
we  soon  ascertained,  with  5,000  tons  of 
oats,  and  making  its  way  to  Havre. 
We  started  after  it,  and  as  usual  it 
tried  to  escape,  but  a  well-directed  shot 
through  the  bridge  and  chart  house 
brought  it  to  a  stop,  and  it  signaled 
that  the  engines  were  being  reversed. 
The  boats  were  lowered,  and  on  draw- 
ing near  we  perceived  the  captain  with 
others  on  the  bridge  holding  up  their 
hands  as  a  token  of  surrender.  As 
soon  as  those  on  board  had  taken  their 
places  in  the  lifeboats  they  rowed 

112 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

towards  us  and  showed  the  liveliest 
interest  in  the  final  torpedoing  of  their 
steamer.  They  looked  upon  it  as  a 
new  kind  of  sport,  and  under  the 
present  conditions  they  could  watch 
the  performance  in  the  most  comfort- 
able way.  The  sea  was  like  a  mirror, 
and  reflected  the  smiling  spring  sun- 
shine whose  warming  rays  were  most 
agreeably  felt. 

The  English  captain  had  scarcely 
been  on  board  my  submarine  a  moment 
when  he  begged  that  we  might  go 
together  and  verify  the  excellent  aim 
of  our  first  shot  through  the  forward 
part  of  his  ship,  which  he  told  me  had 
nearly  grazed  his  ear.  I  consented  to 
go  on  his  lifeboat  and  admire  with  him, 
to  our  mutual  enjoyment,  the  irre- 
proachable marksmanship  of  my  gun- 
ner, although  I  did  not  accept  a  drink 
n3 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

of  whisky  one  of  the  English  officers 
offered  me. 

On  seeing  the  gaping  hole  in  the 
forecastle,  the  captain  and  his  men 
clapped  their  hands  and  cried  out,  "A 
very  good  shot!"  The  captain  con- 
gratulated me  for  securing,  as  he 
asserted,  the  richest  prize  I  had  ever 
made,  but  I  assured  him  we  had  sunk 
even  more  valuable  cargoes  than  the 
present  one.  I  decided,  as  the  sea  was 
calm  and  no  ship  was  in  sight,  to  spare 
our  torpedoes  and  shells  and  to  put  an 
end  to  the  steamer  with  little  hand 
grenades.  The  Englishmen  took  a 
sportsmanlike  interest  in  the  proceed- 
ings, and  one  of  the  officers  even 
volunteered  to  show  me  the  most 
effective  position  for  the  explosive.  I 
naturally  did  not  gratify  his  wish  to 
place  it  there  himself,  for  I  knew  myself 
n4 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER  . 

very  accurately  the  most  vulnerable 
spot  in  the  ship.  In  a  very  few  mo- 
ments a  big  hole  was  torn  in  the  side 
of  the  "Crown  of  Castille"  and  with 
a  gurgling  sound  the  waters  rushed  in. 
At  the  same  time  long,  yellow  threads 
of  the  finest  oats  floated  far  out  on 
the  sea  and,  glistening  with  a  golden 
shimmer,  gave  proof  long  after  the 
steamer  had  sunk  of  the  precious  cargo 
which  had  lain  within  its  flanks.  You 
poor  French  army  horses,  I  fear  your 
rations  were  cut  short  for  a  while! 

I  had  made  an  interesting  study  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  English  crews 
of  the  present  day  were  composed. 
Apart  from  the  British  officers  there 
were  but  few  experienced  seamen  on 
board.  This  was  made  evident  by  the 
awkward  way  the  men  usually  handled 
the  lifeboats.  Even  with  the  enormous 
n5 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

increase  of  wages,  sailors  could  not  be 
found  to  risk  their  lives  in  the  danger 
zone,  and  a  lot  of  untrained  fellows, 
negroes  and  Chinamen,  revealed; by 
their  clumsy  rowing  that  they  had  only 
recently  been  pressed  into  service. 

Various  other  interesting  incidents 
occurred  on  our  return  trip,  which  I 
shall  not  mention  now,  but  having 
safely  reached  our  newly  conquered 
port  of  Ostend,  we  read  to  our  amuse- 
ment in  a  French  paper  that  our  U-boat 
had  been  sunk  in  the  Channel  by  a 
fleet  of  six  fishing  steamers. 

We  were  again  warmly  welcomed 
by  our  comrades  from  the  Army  and 
Navy,  all  anxious  to  hear  the  news  we 
had  to  tell,  and  we  had  the  special 
honor  of  a  visit  from  H.R.H.  the 
Crown  Prince  Rupprecht  of  Bavaria, 
who,  after  inspecting  our  boat,  per- 
116 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

milled  me  to  give  him  a  detailed 
account  of  our  recent  splendid  cruise. 

We  had  many  other  experiences 
during  the  quiet,  warm,  summer 
months,  with  their  long,  clear  nights, 
which  enabled  us  to  achieve  the  further 
destruction  of  a  large  number  of  steam- 
ers. It  was  glorious  to  work  in  fine 
weather  on  our  U-boat  on  the  waters  of 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  so  peaceful  at  this 
season  of  the  year,  and  so  doing  we 
indulged  in  much  friendly  intercourse 
with  the  various  fishermen  we  met. 

Fishing  steamers  have  replaced  the 
old  sailboats  to  a  great  extent,  and 
they  represent  an  enormous  fishing 
industry.  Our  larder  was  daily  re- 
plenished with  fresh  fish,  which  was  a 
greatly  appreciated  item  on  our  mo- 
notonous bill  of  fare. 

One  windy  evening  in  August,  we 
117 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

captured  a  Belgian  steamer  bringing 
home  coal  from  Cardiff;  the  crew 
having  left  the  ship,  the  latter  was 
rapidly  sinking,  when  to  our  astonish- 
ment a  man  sprang  on  deck  from  below. 
He  had  evidently  been  forgotten  and 
our  shot  going  through  the  steamer  had 
warned  him  of  his  danger.  He  hesi- 
tated to  obey  my  repeated  orders  to 
jump  overboard,  until  finally  encased 
in  two  life  belts  he  plunged  into  the 
water  and  began  to  swim;  but  the 
screw  was  still  slowly  revolving,  and 
he  was  drawn  deep  down  by  the  suction 
of  the  water.  We  had  given  him  up  as 
lost,  when  we  were  amazed  to  see  him 
reappear  on  the  other  side  of  the  ship. 
The  screw,  which  had  slowly  pulled  him 
down,  had  thrown  him  up  again,  and 
he  swam  towards  us.  A  big  wave  hav- 
ing tossed  him  onto  our  low  deck,  we 
118 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

were  glad  to  find  he  was  unhurt,  and 
we  gave  him  the  best  of  care.  He  was 
a  Dutchman,  and  after  a  fortnight 
spent  in  our  midst,  he  was  so  happy  he 
no  longer  wished  to  leave  us. 

When  it  came  to  our  sinking  of  the 
"Midland  Queen"  a  similar  incident 
occurred.  A  negro  had  been  forgotten 
by  his  white  fellow-countrymen,  and 
on  finding  himself  abandoned  and  alone 
he  was  so  greatly  scared  that  he  did  not 
dare  to  leave  the  sinking  ship;  we 
watched  him,  and  beckoned  to  him  to 
come  to  us;  but  he  refused,  and  swore 
at  us  furiously.  Presently  the  "Mid- 
land Queen"  pitched  violently  forward, 
and  stood  nearly  erect  with  her  nose  in 
the  water;  then  with  a  shrill  whistling 
sound  she  dived  below  the  surface  of 
the  waves.  The  negro's  black  head 
vanished  in  the  turmoil  of  the  waters; 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

then  suddenly  a  loud  detonation  oc- 
curred; an  explosion  of  compressed  air 
within  the  ship  threw  up,  sky-high, 
barrels  and  boards,  and  among  them, 
to  our  unbelieving  eyes,  we  saw  the 
wriggling  body  of  the  negro.  He  was 
projected  into  the  sea,  and  swam 
towards  us,  apparently  none  the  worse 
after  this  strange  and  violent  experi- 
ence. We  rescued  him  and  handed 
him  over  to  his  mates,  who  had  rowed 
back  to  his  assistance. 

On  our  return  voyage  through  the 
North  Sea  we  met  a  large  sailboat,  with 
the  Swedish  flag  flying  from  the  top- 
mast. She  lay  completely  becalmed, 
and  signaled  for  us  to  draw  near.  We 
saw  a  large  crowd  gathered  on  her 
deck,  and  we  approached  cautiously, 
fearing  some  trap;  when  to  our  joyful 
surprise  we  found  she  had  150  German 

I2O 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

officers  and  sailors  on  board.  They 
belonged  to  one  of  our  auxiliary 
cruisers,  the  "Meteor."  Her  captain 
after  many  exploits  had  been  pursued 
by  several  English  cruisers,  and  to 
save  his  little  vessel  from  being  cap- 
tured he  had  deliberately  sent  her  to 
the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and  the  Swedish 
sailboat  had  picked  up  the  crew.  Our 
shipwrecked  comrades  told  us  they 
were  desperately  hungry,  but  our  own 
provisions  were  exhausted;  so  we  took 
them  in  tow,  for  not  a  breath  of  wind 
stirred  the  sails. 

By  clear  sunshine  we  merrily  cov- 
ered the  short  distance  to  our  nearest 
port,  and  towards  midday  the  sailing 
ship  and  ourselves  let  down  our  anchors 
once  more  off  the  German  coast. 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 


VIII 

THE  METHOD   OF   SINKING  AND 
RAISING   SHIPS 

DURING  the  present  naval  warfare 
we  have  had  the  opportunity  to 
watch  the  sinking  of  ships  of  every 
type  and  size;  shortly  after  receiving 
their  death  wound  the  vessels  usually 
disappear  totally  beneath  the  surface. 
It  takes  even  big  steamers  only  between 
four  and  ten  minutes  to  sink,  after 
being  hit  by  a  torpedo  or  shell  beneath 
the  water  line,  and  yet  occasionally  a 
ship  may  float  several  hours  before 
going  down  to  the  bottom  of  the 
sea. 

It  is  clearly  evident  that  the  slow  or 
rapid  sinking  of  a  ship  depends  on  the 
distribution  of  its  bulkheads  and  water- 

122 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

tight  compartments.  A  man-of-war, 
built  on  the  latest  models,  has  a  great 
many  small  water-tight  compartments, 
for  she  is  meant  to  be  able  to  continue 
fighting  even  after  several  of  these 
compartments  have  been  destroyed; 
whereas,  an  ocean  steamer  is  so  con- 
structed that  she  will  remain  afloat 
only  a  short  time  after  a  collision  with 
another  ship,  or  if  she  runs  into  an  ice- 
berg or  a  derelict,  she  can  endure  a 
certain  intake  of  water,  and  lists  at  a 
moderate  angle  far  more  readily  than 
a  warship,  whose  guns  are  rendered 
nearly  useless  if  the  ship  is  heavily 
canting.  A  warship  must  be  built  so 
as  to  withstand,  without  sinking,  the 
injury  caused  by  a  number  of  gun 
holes  even  beneath  the  water  line, 
where  the  inner  part  of  the  ship  must 
necessarily  be  subdivided  into  many 
128 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

parts.  A  warship  is  built  at  great  cost, 
but  so  is  an  ocean  steamer.  The 
sunken  "Lusitania"  was  worth  35,000,- 
000  marks  (nearly  $9,000,000)  and  the 
mammoth  steamers  of  the  Hamburg- 
American  Line,  the  "Imperator,"  the 
"  Vaterland,"  were  still  more  expensive 
to  build. 

The  ordinary  commercial  steamer 
often  has  in  her  inner  construction  only 
athwartship  bulkheads  through  the 
double  bottom  that  run  from  one  side 
to  another  and  form  large  partitions; 
and  in  proportion  to  her  height  a 
steamer  is  again  subdivided  horizon- 
tally into  several  decks.  But  these  are 
not  usually  water-tight,  and  the  cross 
bulkheads  already  mentioned  form  the 
only  water-tight  divisions  in  the  hold. 
In  the  big  cargo  spaces,  these  divisions 
practically  do  not  exist,  and  the  ship, 
124 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER     . 

throughout  almost  its  whole  interior,  is 
open  from  keel  to  deck.  This  arrange- 
ment, of  course,  facilitates  the  rapid 
loading  and  unloading  of  the  cargo; 
therefore,  in  this  type  of  ship  the  engine 
rooms  and  boilers,  surrounded  and  pro- 
tected by  coal  bunkers,  are  the  only 
really  water-tight  portions  of  the  ship. 
Whoever  has  gazed  down  into  the 
capacious  hold  of  such  a  steamer  will 
readily  understand  that  if  the  water 
should  pour  into  one  of  these  spaces, 
at  either  end  of  the  ship,  the  other  end 
of  the  vessel  would  rise  steadily  up- 
wards. In  nearly  every  case,  even  the 
largest  steamer,  just  before  sinking, 
tilts  abruptly  its  bow  or  stern  straight 
up  out  of  the  sea,  until  the  water  rush- 
ing into  the  hold  draws  the  vessel 
downwards,  and  with  a  mighty  roar  it 
plunges  forever  into  the  deep.  We 

125 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

have  repeatedly  noticed  at  this  moment 
that  the  air  within  the  boat  escapes 
with  a  shrill  whistle  from  every  possible 
aperture,  and  the  sound  resembles  the 
shriek  of  a  steam  siren.  This  is  a 
wonderful  spectacle  to  behold! 

The  velocity  with  which  a  ship  sinks 
depends  on  the  size  of  the  hold,  and  its 
distance  from  the  ship's  center  of 
gravity,  for  the  suction  occurs  more 
rapidly  if  the  ship  is  struck  at  either 
end  than  if  the  blow  is  delivered 
amidships. 

We  are  seldom  concerned  with  ships 
having  empty  holds;  those  we  pursue 
usually  carry  heavy  cargoes,  and  there- 
fore the  water  can  only  penetrate 
within,  where  space  and  air  exist; 
whatever  air  is  left  around  loosely 
packed  bales  and  boxes  must  be  driven 
out  before  the  water  can  stream  in; 
126 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

certain  exceptional  cargoes,  like  wool 
and  cereals,  absorb  a  given  amount  of 
water,  but  these  can  be  discounted. 

Accordingly  the  air  must  escape 
through  existing  holes,  as  the  water 
pouring  in  drives  the  air  into  the  hold; 
the  pressure  with  which  the  water 
comes  in  is  equal  to  the  air  pressure  in 
the  hold.  It  is  quite  conceivable  that 
a  cargo  may  be  so  closely  packed  that 
there  will  be  no  space  left  for  air  to 
escape,  but  this  is  hardly  ever  the  case; 
frequently,  however,  the  cross-sections 
of  the  air  vents  are  so  small  that  the  air 
escapes  only  very  slowly,  and  the  water 
enters  very  slowly  in  the  same  ratio; 
under  these  conditions  it  would  take  a 
long  time  for  a  ship  to  sink.  This 
undoubtedly  is  very  desirable  in  peace 
time,  but  in  time  of  war  this  is  not  at 
all  agreeable  to  our  purpose;  first,  if 
127 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

the  foundering  of  the  vessel  is  pro- 
longed we  are  prevented  from  accom- 
plishing other  work,  and  secondly, 
warships  may  come  to  the  assistance 
of  a  sinking  steamer. 

Whenever  possible  we  found  it  ex- 
pedient to  break  open  with  an  axe 
big  holes  in  the  lockers  in  case  the  hatch 
could  not  be  quickly  enough  removed; 
or,  if  circumstances  did  not  permit  of 
our  doing  this,  we  shot  holes  with  our 
cannon  into  the  upper  part  of  the 
steamer,  above  the  hold,  so  that  the 
air  might  conveniently  escape  and  the 
water  rush  in.  We  employed,  with 
excellent  results,  this  method  in  the 
sinking  of  many  steamers  which  other- 
wise would  have  settled  too  slowly. 

It  happens  sometimes  that  a  ship 
may  carry  a  cargo  that  floats  and  that 
is  not  porous,  such  as  wood.  It  is  im- 
128 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

possible  to  sink  a  vessel  with  such  a 
cargo  by  admitting  water  into  the  hold. 
Shots  therefore  must  be  fired  at  the 
engine  and  boiler  rooms  to  force  this 
kind  of  a  steamer  to  sink.  In  general 
this  is  a  safe  rule  to  follow,  for  these 
are  always  the  most  vulnerable  por- 
tions of  every  heavily  laden  vessel,  and 
this  mode  of  attack  is  nearly  invariably 
successful. 

A  warship  is  usually  equipped  with 
cross  or  lateral  bulkheads,  in  addition 
to  the  longitudinal  bulkhead  that  runs 
from  stem  to  stern  through  the  middle 
of  the  ship,  dividing  it  into  halves, 
and  other  bulkheads  separate  these 
two  longitudinal  sections  into  further 
subdivisions.  With  the  exception  of 
the  great  fast  passenger  steamers,  these 
divisions  by  means  of  longitudinal 
bulkheads  seldom  exist  on  vessels  of 
129 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

commerce,  although  exceptions  are  to 
be  found. 

The  sinking  of  a  steamer  with  a 
multitude  of  partitions  is  effected  by 
its  gradually  listing  more  and  more  on 
the  side  in  which  the  water  is  penetrat- 
ing, until  it  capsizes  completely  and 
founders  with  the  keel  uppermost.  A 
ship  can  also  roll  over  on  its  side  as  it 
plunges  downwards  with  stem  or  stern 
erect. 

Theoretically  a  vessel  might  sink  on 
a  parallel  keel,  descending  horizontally 
deeper  and  deeper  into  the  sea;  but  it 
never  occurs  in  reality.  This  hypothe- 
sis assumes  that  a  ship  has  taken  in  at 
the  bow  exactly  the  same  amount  of 
water  as  at  the  stern,  at  exactly  the 
same  distance  from  the  center  of 
gravity;  this,  of  course,  is  impossible; 
besides  the  holes  through  which  the 
180 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

water  is  pouring  in  must  also  be  at 
precisely  the  same  level,  or  else  the 
water  pressure  would  be  greater  at  one 
end  than  at  the  other,  and  the  slightest 
alteration  of  level  would  occasion  a 
greater  intake  of  water  and  upset  the 
equilibrium  of  the  boat. 

There  is  one  other  point  I  will  touch 
upon;  it  has  often  been  asserted, 
especially  in  romances  of  the  ocean, 
that  as  a  ship  sinks  the  suction  creates 
a  tremendous  whirlpool  which  engulfs 
all  things  in  its  vicinity.  This  state- 
ment is  naturally  very  much  exag- 
gerated. People  swimming  about  may 
be  drawn  down  by  the  suction  of  the 
foundering  ship,  but  in  my  opinion  no 
lifeboat  which  is  well  manned  is  in 
danger  of  this  whirlpool.  Even  old 
sailors,  deluded  by  this  superstition, 
have  rowed  away  in  haste  from  a  sink- 


THE  JOURNAL  OF 

ing  ship,  when  they  might  have  stood 
by  and  saved  many  lives. 

The  question  is  now  often  being  put, 
whether  it  will  be  possible  to  raise  the 
vessels  that  have  been  sunk  during  the 
war.  The  raising  of  a  ship  depends 
above  all  upon  whether  the  depth  at 
which  it  lies  is  so  great  that  it  precludes 
the  work  of  a  diver. 

I  have  already  stated  that  the  water 
pressure  augments  at  the  rate  of  one 
atmosphere  (one  kilogram  to  the  square 
centimeter)  to  ten  meters'  increase  of 
depth.  If  a  diver  working  at  ten 
meters'  depth  is  under  a  pressure  of  one 
atmosphere,  at  fifty  meters  he  will  be 
under  the  tremendous  pressure  of  five 
atmospheres.  This  is  the  greatest 
depth  to  which  a  diver  can  attain,  and 
if  by  chance  a  diver  has  gone  a  few 
meters  beyond  fifty  meters,  no  man  to 
182 


A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

my  knowledge  has  attained  sixty 
meters.  The  work  of  divers  at  a  depth 
of  forty  or  fifty  meters  is  even  then  not 
very  effective,  as  they  are  unable  to 
perform  heavy  tasks,  nor  can  they 
remain  more  than  half  an  hour  at  a 
time  under  such  a  pressure,  and  I  am 
speaking  now  only  of  experts;  therefore 
only  light  and  easy  work  can  be  per- 
formed by  most  divers  at  a  great  depth 
and  the  appliance  of  ponderous  chains 
for  lifting  purposes  can  only  be  ac- 
complished under  unusually  favorable 
conditions.  To  raise  any  ship  at  a 
depth  above  thirty  meters  must  be 
considered  as  a  very  efficient  job, 
whereas  if  this  is  attempted  at  a  depth 
below  thirty  meters  it  can  be  done  only 
by  salvage  companies  where  neither 
unfavorable  bottom  obstacles  nor  cur- 
rents intervene.  A  strong  current 
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THE  JOURNAL  OF 

renders  a  diver's  work  impossible,  for  it 
carries  him  off  his  feet. 

On  the  high  seas  the  currents  change 
with  the  ebb  and  flood.  At  the  precise 
moment  of  the  turn  of  the  tide  the 
undercurrent  is  supposed  to  be  nil, 
and  the  diver  must  take  advantage  of 
this  moment  to  perform  his  task.  An- 
other difficulty  arises  from  the  sand 
being  shifted  by  the  currents,  and 
settling  on  the  prominent  parts  of  a 
wreck;  it  often  envelops  them  to  such 
a  degree  that  the  ship  becomes  so 
deeply  embedded  in  the  sand  that  it  is 
no  longer  salvable. 

According  to  my  estimation  eighty 
per  cent  of  our  enemy's  sunken  ships  lie 
from  fifty  to  a  hundred  meters  below 
the  surface  of  the  sea,  so  that  all  possi- 
bility of  their  being  raised  is  excluded. 
The  largest  ships  nowadays  have  a 
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A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

draft  of  less  than  ten  meters,  and  as 
the  vessels  sunk  lie  at  far  greater  depths 
they  are  no  source  of  danger  to  ship- 
ping in  time  of  peace.  Of  the  remain- 
ing twenty  per  cent  of  sunken  ships 
half  of  them  are  unreclaimable,  either 
owing  to  their  position,  or  owing  to  the 
high  cost  of  salvage,  or  because  it  is 
not  even  known  where  they  lie.  The 
other  half  or  last  ten  per  cent  have 
probably  for  the  greater  part  been  sunk 
in  channels  where  the  currents  are  so 
swift  that  they  are  covered  with  sand, 
and  diving  enterprises  are  out  of  the 
question.  In  time  of  war  such  work 
cannot  be  thought  of;  after  the  war 
the  ships  will  long  since  have  been 
completely  buried  by  the  sand. 

Maybe  off  the  east  coast  of  England 
one  or  two  ships  may  be  raised,  for 
they  lie  at  a  lesser  depth  and  are 
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A  SUBMARINE  COMMANDER 

exposed  to  slighter  currents  than  on 
the  south  coast  of  England,  but  in  that 
district  only  the  smaller  and  more 
insignificant  vessels  have  been  sunk, 
and  it  would  hardly  pay  to  raise  them, 
especially  as  they  are  so  damaged  by 
torpedoes  and  mines  that  they  would 
probably  fall  apart  on  being  raised  to 
the  surface. 

Therefore  hardly  a  single  ship  will 
be  salvaged,  and  the  sea  will  retain  all 
those  ships  it  has  swallowed  in  the 
course  of  this  war  carried  on  by  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth. 


THE  END 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .    A 


FOURTEEN  DAY  USE 

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